Will South Africa's Information Regulator Scrutinise Meta's ‘Data Play'?

In a recent Open Secrets report on the 'data war' between GovChat and Meta, the writers wrote an insightful analysis of the central issues and the potential risk to the 'sanctity' of the personal information of South African citizens.

As we reported previously, the Competition Commission referred to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution the social media group, Meta Platforms Inc (previously known as Facebook Inc), and its subsidiaries, WhatsApp Inc and Facebook South Africa for abuse of dominance. In the past, Meta has demonstrated a global pattern of using its size and power to de-platform competitors and monopolise digital services. "The decision by the Competition Commission is a substantial step in efforts to hold Meta accountable and a big victory for GovChat, which relies on the WhatsApp platform for its business model," wrote Open Secrets.