The entire world is at a Digital & Technological cross road with intense Global competition for Digital and Technology dominance spearheaded by Leading Countries and Big Tech companies.
In Africa today, Digital and Technological development is growing in a slow Linear progression compared to other continents which are witnessing fast spiralling Arithmetic Digital and Technological growth.
Africa’s Dependance on foreign owned Technology products has massively helped to limit Africa’s Digital and Technological growth, Cripple digital innovativeness, Talent, and ultimately plunge the Continent of Billions of Dollars in Digital Revenues.
This is a wake up call for Africa. The African Continent must Produce, Grow, and Compete or Diminish and forever become a consumer of foreign Big Tech Search, Social media and digital technology products which comes with dire economic, security and capitalist consequences.
Why Africa must Setup and Use it’s own Search Engine
Google was invented in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It started as a research project at Stanford University before it became an official company. The American Founded Search Engine has since risen up the ranks and now stands as the World’s Leading Search Engine and Global Information Disseminating Platform in world, with more than 5 trillion searches per year, averaging about 13.7 billion searches per day and 9.5 million searches per minute.
In Modern Global economic times, the Biggest Search Engine on the planet today remains ALPHABET owned Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., has a total market valuation (market capitalization) of approximately $3.91 trillion USD.
However, in recent time, the American owned company Google, has come under serious Scrutiny and Reputation damaging Legal Court verdicts handed over by the European Union Court, indicating that the Search Engine primarily serves the interests of American Companies, Businesses, Websites and Blogs over others.
This comes as Google was fined a total of €890 million (about $1 billion) by the European Union on Thursday July 23, 2026. This penalty marks the first enforcement action against the company under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) Including:
Google Search Penalty: €460 million for illegally self-preferencing its own services on the search engine.
Google Play Penalty: €430 million for restricting businesses from steering users to cheaper purchasing options outside the app store
This hefty €890 million fine, comes in an antitrust verdict which found the Giant Search Engine guilty of Antitrust activities including favouring search results that displays American Hotels, Resorts and Businesses ahead of other Competitors.
Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition at the European Commission Said:
“Google has fallen short of effective compliance with the Digital Markets Act, and today we have taken decisive yet balanced enforcement action sanctioning these breaches. The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine. And European consumers have a right to be told by app developers where to sign up to the best offers, even when the app store owner does not get a cut. This is the promise of the DMA, protecting fairness, choice and innovation in digital markets for the benefit of all European citizens” Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition
Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy at the European Commission Said: “The two decisions we adopted today confirm our determination to apply the Digital Markets Act to safeguard business and innovation. We found that Google harms businesses offering similar services, such as shopping or sports, by not granting them the same level of prominence on Google Search. We also found that Google has restricted app developers from offering cheaper offers to customers in the Google Play app store. Google must now bring the non-compliance to an end and to refrain from continuing it in the future. Today’s decisions send a clear message: we will not hesitate to use our tools to safeguard business and innovation opportunities opened up by the DMA”. Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy
The Commission found that Google gives preferential treatment to its own services, including shopping, hotels, transport and sports results, over those of third parties in Google Search, thereby breaching its obligations under the DMA.
This means that Google displays its own services more prominently in search results, including at the top of the search results page or by using enhanced visuals and filters, while similar third-party services do not have the same prominence.
Google’s anti-steering Under the DMA, app developers that distribute their apps via Google Play should be able to inform customers – free of charge – of alternative, often cheaper, offers, and to direct them to those offers to make purchases, for example on websites or alternative app stores.
The Commission found that Google failed to comply with that obligation.In particular, Google prevents app developers from freely communicating and promoting offers and concluding contracts with users in distribution channels of their choice, including third-party app stores.
While Google can receive a fee for facilitating the initial acquisition of a new customer by an app developer via Google Play, the level of the steering-related fees charged by Google and the length of the charging period for these fees went beyond what is considered compliant with the DMA.
As part of the two decisions, the Commission has ordered Google to bring the non-compliance to an end.In particular, Google must implement measures to:Treat third-party services that feature on Google’s search results in a fair and non-discriminatory manner by reference to its own services, and allow app developers distributing their apps via Google Play Store, both technically and contractually, to freely communicate, promote offers and conclude contracts with users not only within but also outside the Google Play app store.
The Commission notes that, after a constructive dialogue, Google has proposed and started testing changes to how it presents its own services on Google Search for free services such as shopping, hotels and flights. The Commission will monitor the implementation of these solutions which constitute substantial progress towards compliance. The Commission also notes that Google has proposed and started testing changes to how it presents shopping ads and content related services, such as sports.
The Commission is currently assessing these changes and will continue its dialogue with Google in light of today’s decision. The Commission also takes note of Google’s proposals on how it plans to apply the principles of the decision to AI Overviews and AI Mode, on which dialogue will continue in light of today’s decision.The Commission also notes that Google has rolled out changes related to Google’s steering terms. These constitute good progress towards compliance and will also be assessed in light of the cease and desist order of today’s decision.The fines imposed today on Google take into account the gravity and duration of the non-compliance.
Next steps, Google is required to comply with the Commission’s decisions within 60 days, otherwise it risks periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of its total worldwide turnover.The Commission continues to engage with Google to ensure compliance with its decisions and the DMA more generally.
Nigerian Government Institutes Investigations over Google, Meta and other Big Tech Companies
Barely 2 weeks ago, SeedufyTech reported how the Nigerian Government under the Leadership of President Bola Tinubu, ordered an extensive investigation into the dubious activities of foreign Big Tech companies including Google, Meta, X, ETC.
President Tinubu ordered the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission FCCPC to Probe Meta, Google, Others Over Alleged Media Exploitation, Anti-competitive practices, unlawful use of news content and other activities alleged to be undermining Nigeria’s media industry.
The directive followed a joint petition submitted to the Presidency by the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), an umbrella body comprising the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) , the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) , and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE).
The development was disclosed in a statement issued by the FCCPC’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Ondaje Ijagwu.
According to the statement, the federal government conveyed the President’s directive to the commission through a letter signed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.
The Commission said its investigation would extend beyond major technology companies to include Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms operating in Nigeria.
The petition accused global technology firms, including Meta, Alphabet, X (formerly Twitter), and some Generative AI platforms, of engaging in practices that allegedly distort competition, threaten the economic sustainability of Nigerian media organisations and infringe on the rights of publishers and content creators.
FCCPC Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tunji Bello, said the commission would conduct a transparent, impartial and evidence-driven investigation into the allegations.
“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 stressed that the investigation should not be interpreted as a finding of wrongdoing against any company.
“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.”
According to Bello, the commission will determine whether the alleged conduct violates the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) 2018 or any other applicable law.
Among the issues under investigation are allegations of abuse of market dominance and anti-competitive conduct by the affected technology firms.
The Commission will also examine claims that copyrighted news articles, broadcast content and other original journalistic works were extracted, scraped, ingested or commercially exploited without the consent of publishers for the training and development of Generative AI models.
Another key aspect of the probe is the alleged lack of fair commercial agreements between global technology companies and Nigerian media organisations.
Media stakeholders argue that local publishers have been denied meaningful opportunities to negotiate compensation or establish equitable commercial terms for the use of their content, despite the increasing reliance of digital platforms and AI systems on professionally produced journalism.
The FCCPC noted that similar concerns had been addressed in South Africa, where an investigation by the South African Competition Commission resulted in an agreement for Google to pay South African news media R688 million (about $40 million) annually for between three and five years.
The Commission also recalled its previous regulatory action against Meta. It noted that in 2025, it secured a judgment against the company over breaches of the FCCPA, including data privacy violations, leading to a $220 million fine. Meta is currently appealing the decision.
Why the African Union Must Put Heads together to Develop African Owned Search Engine and Use it for Sustainable Digital Growth
The African Union (AU) needs to wake up to the realities of the Modern Digital age. Africa’s Biggest Union tasked with Sustainable African Development, must realise that dependency on Foreign Big Tech Companies and Foreign Owned Social Media Platforms comes with damaging economic, and human development consequences that enforces underdevelopment, talent rot, lack of job opportunities, misinformation, data insecurity and ultimately plunges Africa’s Digital Revenues.
The African Union (AU) must come together hastily, to Setup Africa’s Indigenously owned Giant Search Engine to be used for African Internet Search activities. The Union must not stop at this. The African Union must ensure that this Indigenous Giant African owned search engine, is given Top Mandatory use priority over Foreign Owned Search Engines while strong Legislations are constituted to curtail the Dominance of Foreign Owned Search Engines.
The African Union must unite in this resolve to block all foreign Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and the host of others from imposing American Internet dominance over Africa.
If the African Union cannot unite together to achieve this resolve, the African Continent will forever remain Digital and Technological slaves to foreign Big Tech Companies who plunder the continents digital & Internet resources while exposing African Data to all sorts of sabotage, hackers and Internet arsonists.
