Italy’s data protection authority said on Saturday it had fined Facebook owner Meta €805 million ($880 million) for accessing photos, videos and related metadata on Android devices “without obtaining specific consent and without properly informing” users.

Meta said it would appeal. A company spokesperson said Meta “strongly disagree[s]” with the regulator’s assessment and what it called “the disproportionate level of the fine”.

The penalty concerns Facebook’s gallery suggestions feature, which has been available since 2023. The feature suggests photos and videos from a user’s phone gallery that they might want to share as posts while browsing the app.

The regulator said Facebook sought a single permission to access the gallery across the app. That request followed a generic notice about enabling other features, which the authority said did not make clear that users were also granting access for gallery suggestions.

The authority said Meta must seek separate consent for the feature, clearly explain that it accesses the phone’s photo gallery and tell users how to switch it off.

In setting the fine, the regulator cited the number of people affected, estimated at around 20 million Android users in Italy, and the length of time the practice had continued. It said the infringement was ongoing for users who had not updated the app and for those who had already granted permission. It also cited “Meta’s lack of cooperation during the investigation”.

The fine amounts to roughly 0.4 per cent of Meta’s 2025 revenue of $201 billion. The company reported a net profit of $60.5 billion that year.

The penalty is among the largest imposed on a technology company by an Italian authority. In 2021, Amazon was fined more than €1.1 billion for breaching competition rules. That penalty was reduced to €752 million on appeal.

In a separate case in late October, authorities in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25 billion over findings that it had misled residents about how it used their data for more than a decade. Meta called that record penalty a “tax” on freedom of expression.

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US officials told Congress on Thursday, November 12, that violence against Christians in Nigeria had not abated, a year after President Donald Trump again designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern” (CPC) over religious freedom.

Chris Smith, chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, led a hearing to examine Nigeria’s response to attacks on vulnerable communities since the designation. He described it as a “wake-up call for Nigeria” and urged the government to protect religious believers, particularly Christians, from attacks by armed groups including Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province.

Riley Barnes, a US State Department official responsible for democracy, human rights and labour, said Nigeria had taken steps to curb the violence but that those efforts had yet to improve safety for Christian communities in the Middle Belt. “There are still rising death tolls and kidnappings. So, I think we have this posture of trust but verify,” Barnes said.

Frank Garcia, a State Department official responsible for African affairs, said the department had worked closely with Nigerian authorities to address attacks on Christian communities and hold those responsible to account. He said the violence had continued despite those efforts.

Republican Representative Riley Moore called for the US to retain Nigeria’s designation and closely monitor the country’s upcoming presidential election.

“We cannot take this CPC designation off this country. They have not done enough,” Moore said. Smith said Congress would consider what further measures were needed to curb the violence and prevent more attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria.

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New Orleans Mayor, Helena Moreno, has described as a miracle the successful rescue of passengers from the Mississippi River following a collision between a tanker ship and a cruise boat.

The mayor said all passengers were accounted for after the incident, which occurred when the tanker reportedly lost control and crashed into the cruise ship.

However, more than 30 of the 180 passengers rescued were taken to hospital for treatment. They are reportedly responding to medical care.

American Cruise Lines also confirmed that its riverboat, American Heritage, was involved in a collision while docked in New Orleans on Friday.

Emergency services were immediately deployed to the scene, where they carried out a major rescue operation that ended successfully.

Melanie Montroll, Chief Public Safety and Emergency Management Officer at the Port of New Orleans, said the boat began taking on water while passengers were being evacuated.

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