Two Ethiopians have filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the Facebook company of inciting hatred and violence during Ethiopia’s civil war. Ethiopian academic Abrham Meareg and Amnesty International adviser Fisseha Tekle filed a constitutional motion with the Supreme Court in neighboring Kenya on Wednesday.
The indictment, which is available for inspection at the German press agency, accuses Facebook of spreading hate and violence to generate advertising profits. Meta failed to allocate enough staff at its Kenya facility to properly moderate content in African languages, it said. As a result, Facebook posts “inflamed conflict and killed people, … especially during Ethiopia’s civil war, which has claimed the lives of about 500,000 people,” prosecutors said in a statement.
The document holds Facebook responsible, among other things, for the murder of Abrham Meareg’s father, who was the victim of a viral smear campaign. Abraham’s father was gunned down outside his home on November 3, 2021 after multiple calls for his death on Facebook. His son unsuccessfully asked Facebook to remove the entries. All in all, according to prosecutors, Facebook’s algorithm has harmed not only Ethiopians, but also half a billion people in East and South Africa.
The petition calls for a series of court orders to end “Facebook’s systematic discrimination against African users”. Demands include speeding up the removal of comments inciting violence; hiring more content moderators on the Nairobi Facebook hub responsible for South and East Africa; and creating a $1.6 billion compensation fund for victims of Facebook-inflicted hate and violence and $400 million for similar damages from sponsored posts.
The German news agency could not immediately reach Meta for comment.
The Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have been fighting a two-year war since November 2020, which ended just over a month ago with a ceasefire and negotiations for a peace deal. The research institute International Crisis Group (ICG) described the conflict as “one of the deadliest in the world”. (saw/sda/dpa)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
