Meta is facing prosecution in South Africa, and the Competition Tribunal has been set for today, Tuesday, April…
The commission alleged that the tech giant threatened to remove #LetsTalk and GovChat- a South African government-citizen engagement platform that uses the WhatsApp Business API to facilitate real-time communication – to deal directly with the South African government and from using its WhatsApp Business API.
Facebook, in response, claimed that GovChat routinely disregarded its terms of service and refused its offers of help in doing so. GovChat is a private company, and Meta claimed that it had violated predetermined rules by “signing up organizations to the WhatsApp API without going through our onboarding process.
As the hearing nears, the Commission has also requested that the Tribunal impose a 10% of their combined revenue maximum penalty against Meta Platforms, WhatsApp, and Facebook South Africa.
Read Also: Kenya court order puts Meta content moderation services in uncertainty
Meta’s legal issues in recent months
At that time, the executive arm of the EU, the European Commission, admitted that by limiting competition in the online classified ad marketplaces, the big tech firm had broken EU antitrust regulations. With the perspective that they are a pro-consumer and pro-competitive company, Meta refuted these allegations.
However, apart from anticompetitive cases, the tech giant has been in a circle of legal dramas in Africa and beyond in recent months. Late last year, it was sued for $2 billion in Kenya’s High Court for allegedly encouraging hate speech, inciting ethnic conflict, and failing to moderate content in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Early in January, it was fined about €400 million ($430 million) by the Irish Data Protection Commission for violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation in connection with both its Facebook and Instagram services.
Meta’s rough days
Although 2022 was a rough year for the tech industry, the tech giant faced major breakdowns, weak revenues, regulatory woes, and a metaverse vision crumpled, and with these legal battles spewing over to 2023, it might not just be a better year.
Although the company appears optimistic for this year and has made significant actions to help it manage its finances and reduce spending, such as reducing its workforce and terminating over 12000 employees, it may still need to do some work.