A new lawsuit has accused Meta Platforms of enabling violent and hateful posts from Ethiopia to flourish on Facebook, inflaming the country's bloody civil war.
The lawsuit, filed in Kenya on Tuesday, was brought by two Ethiopian researchers and Kenyan rights group the Katiba Institute. It alleges Facebook's recommendations systems amplified violent posts in Ethiopia, including several that preceded the murder of the father of one of the researchers.
The lawsuit also said the company failed to exercise reasonable care in training its algorithms to identify dangerous posts and in hiring staff to police content for the languages covered by its regional moderation hub in Nairobi. Meta spokesperson Erin McPike said hate speech and incitement to violence were against the rules of Facebook and Instagram.“We employ staff with local knowledge and expertise and continue to develop our capabilities to catch violating content in the most widely spoken languages in Ethiopia.”
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