Kehinde Fajobi
Senior Advocate of Nigeria and human rights lawyer Femi Falana has filed a $5 million lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc., accusing the tech giant of invading his privacy by publishing false health claims about him.
In a suit before a Lagos High Court, Falana alleged that a video posted on Facebook falsely portrayed him as suffering from prostatitis, a condition he said he has never had.
The video, published under the page “AfriCare Health Centre,” featured his name, image, and a voiceover falsely attributed to him, detailing a long struggle with the disease.
Falana, represented by his lawyer Olumide Babalola, argued that the publication was “false, inaccurate, misleading and unfair” and violated his fundamental right to privacy under Section 37 of the Nigerian Constitution and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023.
He is seeking a court order compelling Meta to remove the video, as well as $5 million in damages for the harm the false claims have caused to his reputation.
In his affidavit, Falana described himself as a fearless advocate for human rights and public interest litigation, stating that the viral video subjected him to “emotional and psychological distress.”
He claimed Meta acted recklessly by allowing the false content to spread globally without verification, leading to ridicule and public embarrassment.
“I have never had any dealings with the Respondent or its pages on issues with my health life,” Falana said.
“The video and its contents are false, inaccurate, misleading and unfair to me. The video paints me in a false light and is an invasion of my privacy.”
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He further alleged that Meta’s platform benefits financially from traffic generated by such misleading content.
“For their failure to verify the page and video before publishing, I believe the Respondent’s publicity of my name and image in a false light was done carelessly and recklessly to draw traffic to the Respondent’s platform to boost its advertisement revenues.”
Falana urged the court to intervene, arguing that his reputation and privacy had been unjustly violated.