Meta Platforms was accused in a lawsuit filed in Kenya on Wednesday of letting violent and hateful posts from Ethiopia flourish on Facebook, inflaming the Ethiopian civil war. The lawsuit, filed by two Ethiopian researchers and the Kenya's Katiba Institute rights group, alleges that Facebook's recommendations systems amplified violent posts in Ethiopia, including several that preceded the murder of the father of one of the researchers. Mercy Mutemi, the lawyer representing the two Ethiopian researchers, told a news conference in Nairobi. Meta spokesperson Erin McPike said hate speech and incitement to violence were against the rules of Facebook and Instagram. The father of Abrham Meareg, one of the Ethiopian researchers, faced ethnic slurs and calls for his death in Facebook posts in October 2021 that revealed where he lived, according to the lawsuit.

Source: Ethiopian News December 14, 2022 12:23 UTC