Nigeria’s major media organisations have asked President Bola Tinubu to investigate Google, Meta, X and other global technology companies over allegations that they are using Nigerian news content to develop artificial intelligence systems without fair compensation, while also engaging in practices they believe threaten the sustainability of the country’s media industry.
The request culminated on Monday, July 6, 2026, after President Tinubu directed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to investigate the allegations following a joint petition submitted by the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), according to a statement issued by the Commission.
The directive was conveyed to the FCCPC by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.
The NPO represents Nigeria’s leading media industry bodies, comprising the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), and the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP). Together, the organisations represent newspaper publishers, broadcast stations, journalists and online news publishers across the country.
Why publishers believe AI companies are exploiting their content
The investigation comes as generative artificial intelligence has rapidly transformed how people access information online.
AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other large language models are trained on enormous volumes of text, images and other digital content collected from across the internet. Increasingly, AI assistants embedded into platforms such as Grok on X and Meta AI also summarise news stories directly within their platforms, allowing users to consume information without necessarily visiting publishers’ websites.
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Nigerian media organisations argue that much of the journalism produced by local publishers is being used to develop and improve these AI systems without their knowledge, consent or compensation, depriving news organisations of revenue while technology companies benefit commercially from their work.
Among the issues the FCCPC will investigate is the “allegation of unauthorised extraction, scraping, ingestion, or commercial utilisation of copyrighted news articles, broadcast materials, and other original journalistic content for the development and training of Generative Artificial Intelligence models.”
Beyond AI training, the Commission will also examine allegations of market dominance and possible anti-competitive conduct by major technology companies.
The investigation also follows broader concerns by Nigerian publishers that global digital platforms have failed to establish fair commercial relationships with local media organisations despite relying heavily on their journalism.
As the FCCPC explained, “Central to this is the allegation that affected media organisations have been denied meaningful opportunities to negotiate fair compensation or appropriate commercial arrangements for the use of their journalistic content.”
FCCPC says investigation will be evidence-based
Responding to the directive, FCCPC Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tunji Bello, said the Commission would conduct an independent investigation without presuming any wrongdoing by any company.
“We recognise the strategic importance of the media to Nigeria’s democracy and the equally significant role of technology in driving innovation and economic growth. Our responsibility is to objectively determine the facts and ensure that competition within the digital ecosystem remains fair, transparent, and consistent with Nigerian law,” Bello said.
He added that the investigation would allow all parties to present their positions before any conclusions are reached.
“This inquiry is not directed at any entity by presumption of wrongdoing. Rather, it is an opportunity to carefully examine the facts, hear from all affected parties, and determine whether any conduct has resulted in anti-competitive outcomes or unfair business practices. Every party will be accorded a fair opportunity to present relevant information before any conclusions are reached.”
The Commission said it will determine whether the alleged practices violate the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 or any other applicable Nigerian law.
Nigerian publishers join global push against AI companies
Nigeria’s move mirrors a growing global effort by publishers to prevent AI developers and technology platforms from freely using copyrighted journalism to train artificial intelligence systems without licensing agreements or compensation.
One of the most significant examples came from South Africa, where the country’s Competition Commission concluded an inquiry into digital platforms and found that Google had significantly weakened the business models that traditionally supported local news organisations.
The Commission found that although news content helps drive user engagement and advertising revenue on Google’s platforms, South African publishers were not being compensated for their journalism. It also concluded that Google’s search and AI-generated summaries had reduced referral traffic to publishers’ websites while favouring larger international outlets over many local news organisations.
Following the investigation, Google agreed to provide more than $40 million annually to support South African news organisations over a period of three to five years.
Legal battles over AI training data are also intensifying elsewhere.
- In December 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging millions of its articles were used without authorisation to train AI systems.
- More recently, Reddit filed lawsuits against AI companies including Perplexity and Anthropic over alleged unauthorised scraping of user-generated content.
- In May 2026, CNN also sued Perplexity, accusing the AI search company of scraping thousands of its articles, videos and images without compensation.
The Nigerian investigation could therefore become the country’s most significant examination yet of how global technology companies use local journalism in the age of generative AI, and whether publishers should receive compensation when their content helps power the next generation of AI systems.