Meta Sued Over Facebook’s Role in Ethiopia Killings

Ethiopia has emerged in recent conversations concerning how technology and social media influence human rights, political debate, and social stability in recent years.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp has been at the center of controversy in the nation due to claims that it facilitates the dissemination of false information, hate speech, and incitement to violence.

Abrham Mearag, Fisseha Tekle, and The Katiba Institute filed a $2.3 billion lawsuit against Meta, Facebook’s parent company, and a Kenyan court will soon determine if it has jurisdiction over the case.

They contend that hate speech was magnified by Facebook’s algorithms, resulting in actual injuries, such as Abrham’s father’s murder during Ethiopia’s civil war.

Ethiopia conducted a battle against insurgents from Tigray, which was then ruled by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in its northernmost area between 2020 and 2022.

Due to numerous claims of war crimes, violations of human rights, and ethnic cleansing in Tigray, the conflict, which was among the deadliest in recent world history, attracted international attention.

In November 2022, Tigray was left in ruins, and its capital was given to the federal authority, marking the official conclusion of the conflict.

Fisseha Tekle, an Amnesty International staffer who was threatened online, and Abrham Meareg, whose father was slain in November 2021 after hate remarks against him surfaced on Facebook, joined Katiba Institute in suing Meta.

They contend that Facebook’s algorithms encouraged offensive material, which aided in violations of human rights.

Meta’s Response To The Lawsuits

The legal team for Meta has argued that the lawsuit shouldn’t be heard in Kenya because the company is registered in the US and that such claims must be submitted in the US per Meta’s terms of service.

Additionally, they contend that since the purported human rights abuses took place in Ethiopia, Kenya cannot hear about them.

The petitioners, on the other hand, contend, among other things, that the issue can be taken to the Kenyan High Court.

Their reason is that the content moderation operation that examined Ethiopian Facebook content was based in Kenya.

Additional reasons given for evaluating the case under Kenyan jurisdiction included that the plaintiff currently resides in Kenya and is unable to return to Ethiopia due to safety concerns; the Katiba Institute is a Kenyan organization; and the country has a sizable Facebook user base.

By changing Meta’s content moderation policies, the petition aims to prevent Facebook’s algorithms from suggesting harmful, hateful, and inciting content.

This is because these contents encourage violence and discrimination against particular people or groups, causing actual harm and grave human rights violations to Facebook users. They also aim to force Meta to establish a victims’ fund of $2.3 billion.