Meta Appeals Nigerian Ruling Restricting Facebook, Instagram Ad Tracking
LAGOS, NIGERIA: Meta Platforms has appealed a Lagos State High Court judgment that found its processing of Nigerian Facebook and Instagram users’ personal data for behavioural advertising unlawful.
The company filed its notice of appeal on September 30, five days after Justice A.F. Pokanu of the Lagos High Court, Ikorodu Judicial Division, delivered the judgment.
The court had ordered Meta to stop the unlawful processing and profiling of users’ personal data for behavioural advertising without a lawful basis. It also ordered the company to take remedial steps to bring its Nigerian data-processing operations into compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 within eight weeks.
The court awarded the applicants damages equivalent to US$100,000 in naira, in addition to ₦1 million in costs.
The case was brought by the Incorporated Trustees of Laws and Rights Awareness Initiative on behalf of Nigerian Facebook and Instagram users, alongside five individual applicants.
Justice Pokanu held that Meta’s collection, processing and profiling of the applicants’ personal data for behavioural advertising violated their constitutional right to privacy under Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution and provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Act.
The court also rejected Meta’s argument that its general terms of service provided a sufficient legal basis for advertising-related data processing. It held that behavioural advertising and profiling were not indispensable to providing the core social-media services.
The judgment further addressed transparency and international data transfers, with the court rejecting the argument that Nigerian users effectively transferred their own data to Meta’s overseas servers simply by using Facebook or Instagram.
Meta Challenges the Decision
Meta’s appeal will now place the interpretation of Nigeria’s data-protection framework before the Court of Appeal.
Among the issues expected to be examined are whether Meta’s contractual terms provide a lawful basis for behavioural advertising, whether users gave valid consent, the transparency requirements imposed by the Nigeria Data Protection Act and the rules governing international transfers of personal data.
The appeal also means the Lagos judgment remains a first-instance decision and the final legal position could change following the appellate process.
The case comes as Nigerian courts have produced different outcomes in separate privacy disputes involving Meta.
In July 2026, the High Court of Imo State dismissed a US$25 million privacy claim against Meta, finding that the applicant had not established that the company unlawfully processed her personal data or violated her constitutional privacy rights.
The contrasting decisions highlight the developing nature of Nigerian data-protection jurisprudence and could make the Lagos appeal particularly significant for technology companies, advertisers and millions of social-media users in the country.
For Nigerian Facebook and Instagram users, the dispute centres on a fundamental question: what legal basis can a social-media platform rely on to collect and use personal data for targeted advertising?
The Court of Appeal will now have an opportunity to provide further clarity on that question.
