Pascal Oparada
Up to now Facebook has maintained a hub in Lagos, but now, the social media giant, has announced it would open an office in Lagos in 2021, its second office in Africa and the first to house software engineers.
This was announced by Facebook Programme Manager, Chimdindu Aneke on Twitter.
“We are opening a Facebook office in Lagos, Nigeria later in 2021”, he said.
He added that the office would be the first in Africa by Facebook for the purpose of engineering and “building for the future of Africa and beyond”.
In 2016, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and wife, Priscilla, invested about $24 million in a Nigerian startup, Andela where it has maintained a hub in the Yaba area of Lagos.
Facebook’s foray into Nigeria is seen by experts as a mixed blessing.
On the one hand, Facebook would deploy its top-notch technical knowledge and make it easier to access its cluster of services in the country.
On the other hand, there are fears that the social networking company would take advantage of Nigeria’s weak data laws to commit infractions.
In Europe, Facebook has been on the slammer for a series of data breaches, the most infamous of which is data theft of over 87 million users during the 2016 US elections.
This has prompted the European Union to roll out the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018. Yet this has not stopped the social media company from running foul of other laws in Europe.
Other analysts believe there is nothing to fear as the company may have learnt its lessons from the missteps in other countries.
“Facebook is not particularly known to play by the books. When it comes to data breaches, it is the biggest culprit in the globe”, John Ogazi, a tech expert said.
According to Ogazi, it should not be an easy ride for Facebook when it finally sets up fully in Nigeria.
Many employees of the company have complained of a lacklustre attitude of the company to issues of data mining and swift action against those who propagate hate speech on the platform.
An employee, Timothy Aveni posted on LinkedIn recently that he resigned because Facebook had not held Trump to its community standards.
“Over and over the posts abhorrent, targeted messages that would get any other Facebook user suspended from the platform,” Aveni wrote.
Another engineer, Owen Anderson, wrote on Twitter that he was “proud to announce” he was resigning as he would “no longer support policies and values I vehemently disagree with.” Anderson said his departure was “in the works for a while”.
Both employees resigned the same week.
Just last week, celebrities such as Kim Kardashian boycotted Facebook and Instagram over the company’s inability to take action against misinformation.
The campaign, #StopHateForProfit, is aimed at Facebook and Instagram and has attracted such disparate individuals as Kim Kardashian West, Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Ruffalo.
All have said they would not post to their accounts on Wednesday last week. Collectively they reach millions of followers.
Cohen is a longtime outspoken critic of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, arguing the platform is a publisher and as such should be held responsible for the materials on its site.
In remarks last November to the Anti-Defamation League, Cohen said, “It’s time to finally call these companies what they really are — the largest publishers in history. And here’s an idea for them: abide by basic standards and practices just like newspapers, magazines and TV news do every day”.
“Facebook, stop spreading the hate, lies and conspiracies that inflame our societies!” Cohen tweeted in advance of the boycott.
Kardashian West, another regular presence on social media, tweeted: “I love that I can connect directly with you through Instagram and Facebook, but I can’t sit by and stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of hate, propaganda and misinformation — created by groups to sow division and split America apart — only to take steps after people are killed. Misinformation shared on social media has a serious impact on our elections and undermines our democracy. Please join me tomorrow (Wednesday last week) when I will be ‘freezing’ my Instagram and FB account to tell Facebook to #StopHateForProfit”.
As the social media giant sets up shop in Africa’s populous country, there are worries that the over 33 million active monthly users on the platform would be the better for it.