Meta Platforms enabled hateful Facebook posts from Ethiopia, causing conflict

• Ethiopia’s government and rebel groups have been at war since 2020.
• Meta Platforms must set aside almost $2 billion to compensate victims of violence incited on Facebook.
• Expand its moderation team in Nairobi.

Meta Platforms is accused of allowing violent and nasty posts from Ethiopia to grow on Facebook, inflaming Ethiopia’s civil strife. This lawsuit was brought against Meta by two Ethiopian researchers and a Kenyan rights organisation called the Katiba Institute. The paper claims that Facebook’s recommendation systems helped spread violent content in Ethiopia, including many posts that may have contributed to the researcher’s father’s death.

The corporation, it is claimed in the case, did not take reasonable precautions when it came to the development of algorithms to detect potentially harmful messages or the recruitment of human moderators to oversee content in the languages supported by its regional moderation hub in Nairobi.

Erin McPike, a representative for Meta, stated that threats of violence or any encouragement to hatred is not permitted on either Facebook or Instagram.
The plaintiffs are reportedly asking the court to mandate that Meta immediately remove violent content from the platform. In addition, we need to set aside almost $2 billion to compensate victims of violence incited on Facebook and expand our moderation team in Nairobi.

The Ethiopian government and rebel groups from the northern Tigray region have been at war since 2020, and the violence has claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions.

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