The latest legal action against Meta should make African governments uncomfortable.

In the United States, state governments took Facebook and Instagram to court over claims that the platforms were designed in ways that encouraged addictive use among children and teenagers. Meta has now agreed to pay up to US$18 billion over the next decade and make major changes to how young people use its platforms.

The agreement includes a two hour daily limit for users under 18, restrictions on overnight use, tighter age checks and other protections for teenagers. The deal still requires court approval.

But there is something African governments should pay attention to. African users will not automatically receive a share of this money.

The settlement comes from cases brought by US states and the money is tied to those American proceedings. Some of the funds will go towards youth safety and mental health programmes in the US.

Yet Facebook and Instagram have millions of African users, including millions of young people.

So where are the serious African cases against these companies?

Where are the governments taking Big Tech to court over children's safety, privacy, data collection, addictive design and the treatment of African consumers?

This is where the contrast with Europe becomes embarrassing. The European Commission has already taken action against Meta under the Digital Services Act. In July 2026, the Commission preliminarily found Facebook and Instagram in breach of the law over addictive design features including infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications and personalised recommendations.

Earlier in April, the Commission also found that Meta was failing to properly prevent children under 13 from accessing Facebook and Instagram. That is what serious regulation looks like.

Governments do not have to arrest somebody who posts something they do not like. They can take on the companies themselves.

Europe has repeatedly shown that it can force some of the world's biggest technology companies to change how they operate. Take the humble phone charger.

The USB C charger that comes with the phone you are buying for your girlfriend did not simply become standard by accident. The European Union passed legislation requiring new mobile phones and several other electronic devices sold in its market to support USB C charging from December 2024. The rules were extended to laptops from April 2026.

Manufacturers had to respond because Europe has a market large enough and regulators strong enough to make them respond.

African consumers benefit from some of these changes even though African governments did not necessarily lead the fight. That is the problem.

Africa has hundreds of millions of internet users. Its young population spends enormous amounts of time on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and other platforms. These companies collect data from African users, sell advertising around their attention and make billions from the continent's growing digital economy.

Yet African governments often appear more interested in controlling what citizens say online than in protecting citizens from the companies running the platforms.

A young Kenyan posts something critical about a politician and suddenly there are threats of arrest, summons or investigations.

But when a multinational technology company is accused of collecting data improperly, exposing children to harmful content or designing products that encourage compulsive use, the political noise is often much quieter.

That needs to change.

Regulating Big Tech does not mean shutting down Facebook or banning TikTok. It means having strong privacy laws that are actually enforced. It means protecting children. It means demanding transparency from technology companies.

It means giving regulators enough money, independence and legal authority to investigate companies worth hundreds of billions of dollars. It means governments being willing to go to court when companies repeatedly ignore the rights of their users.

The US settlement with Meta is a reminder that governments can take on companies far more powerful than individual citizens.

Europe has shown the same thing through its digital laws. Africa should stop waiting for Europe and America to fight these battles before African consumers enjoy the benefits.

Our governments should stop treating ordinary social media users as the problem and start asking whether Big Tech is giving African consumers the same level of protection it is being forced to provide elsewhere