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The Lagos High Court orders Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to pay $25,000 for spreading fake health news about Femi Falana.

The Lagos High Court at TBS has awarded $25,000 in damages against Meta Platforms Inc. The tech giant, owned by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, was found liable for an invasive and false publication involving the renowned human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN).

The trouble started early last year when a misleading video surfaced on Facebook. The clip, attributed to an "AfriCare Health Centre," used Falana’s voice and images to claim he was battling a terminal case of prostatitis.

Femi Falana, naturally, didn't take this lightly. He sued the company for $5 million, arguing that the video was not just a lie, but a direct attack on his privacy and a stain on the reputation he has spent decades building.

During the Tuesday judgment, Justice Olalekan Oresanya was firm. He brushed aside the popular defense that social media platforms are just "middlemen" who aren't responsible for what people post.

The judge noted that since Meta makes money from these pages and uses algorithms to push content, they are "joint controllers" of the data. In simpler terms: if you profit from the house, you’re responsible for the mess made inside it.

One of the most significant parts of the ruling was the court’s stance on celebrity privacy. The judge held that being a public figure doesn't mean your private health data is fair game for the world.

Justice Oresanya emphasized that medical information is sensitive and deserves "heightened protection." 

Whether you are a famous lawyer or a private citizen, Big Tech now has a legal "duty of care" to ensure they aren't helping spread harmful lies about your health.

This victory isn't just for Falana; it’s a win for the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA). The court found that Meta breached Section 24 of the Act by processing inaccurate and harmful information without a lawful basis.

Lawyers across the country are already calling this a game-changer. It weakens the "mere platform" defense that tech giants often use to escape accountability. 

Now, the standard is clear: if the harm is foreseeable, the platform must act to prevent it.