In a new lawsuit, Meta was accused of allowing hateful and violent posts from Ethiopia on Facebook.
The suit was filed in Kenya. It claims that the actions of the social media giant have inflamed Kenya’s civil war between government forces and rebellious forces from northern Tigray. This conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths and millions of people being displaced.
Two Kenyan rights groups, the Katiba Institute and two Ethiopian researchers brought it against . They own Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
They argued that Facebook’s recommendation system amplified violent postings in Ethiopia. This includes several posts that predated the murder of Abrhammearag, the father of one the researchers.
The lawsuit referred to Facebook posts that were published in October 2021 and used ethnic slurs to refer Mr Meareg. They also shared his address, and called for his murder.
They were reported by Mr Mearag to Facebook at that time. However, Facebook declined to remove them immediately or in some cases, all the way, according to the lawsuit claims.
Meta was also accused of not exercising reasonable care when training its algorithms to detect dangerous situations.
post and in hiring personnel to police content in the languages covered by Nairobi.
Meta has to say something about the claims.
According to the company, hate speech and incitement towards violence are against Facebook and Instagram’s rules.
Meta spokesperson Erin McPike stated that they have invested heavily in technology and teams to find and remove such content.
He said, “We have local knowledge and expertise. We are constantly improving our abilities to capture violating content in the most spoken languages of Ethiopia.”
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The plaintiffs ask the court to order Meta take immediate steps to reduce violent content and increase moderation.
Staff in Nairobi, create restitution funds worth approximately $2bn (PS1.6bn), for victims of violence on Facebook.
Meta faces similar accusations in this case, which echo the many allegations it has been facing for years about atrocities that were stoked via its platforms.
Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
The company’s Oversight Board recommended last year that they review how Instagram and Facebook were used to spread content that increases the risk of violence.
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