{"id":10719,"date":"2022-12-16T17:49:20","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T17:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/cape-verde\/all-news\/facebook-hit-by-a-lawsuit-over-promoting-hate-speech-in-africa"},"modified":"2022-12-16T17:55:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T17:55:37","slug":"facebook-hit-by-a-lawsuit-over-promoting-hate-speech-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/cape-verde\/all-news\/facebook-hit-by-a-lawsuit-over-promoting-hate-speech-in-africa","title":{"rendered":"Facebook hit by a lawsuit over promoting hate speech in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Cape verde. <\/strong><\/span>Meta Platforms is facing a lawsuit in Kenya\u2019s high court accusing the company of failing Africans by amplifying hate speech and incitement to violence on Facebook and calling for about US$2-billion (R35-billion) in restitution.<\/p>\n

The case has been filed by Ethiopian researchers Abrham Meareg and Fisseha Tekle, along with Kenyan human rights group Katiba Institute, supported by legal nonprofit Foxglove. Meareg\u2019s father, chemistry professor Meareg Amare, was shot and killed outside his home last November after a series of hateful posts targeted him for attack, the court filings state.<\/p>\n

The petitioners argue that the public needs protection from Facebook\u2019s \u201cwoeful failure to address violence on its platform\u201d and its design that \u201cpromotes and prioritises hateful, incitement and dangerous content\u201d, according to court filings.<\/p>\n

Meta, which generated revenue of $117.9-billion in 2021, uses a recommendation algorithm on Facebook that promotes content that users are more likely to interact with in order to hold people\u2019s attention. This allows people to be served more ads so the company can maximise revenue, according to the court documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cContent that promotes violence can and does translate to violence offline,\u201d the documents state.<\/p>\n

Meta says it invests in enforcing its rules against hate speech and incitement of violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeedback from local civil society organisations and international institutions guides our safety and integrity work in Ethiopia,\u201d the company said in a statement. \u201cWe employ staff with local knowledge and expertise and continue to develop our capabilities to catch violating content in the most widely spoken languages in the country, including Amharic, Oromo, Somali and Tigrinya.\u201d<\/p>\n

Restitution fund<\/p>\n

The petitioners want Meta to invest more heavily in content moderation focused on Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, particularly in countries that are \u201cvulnerable to war, conflict, ethnic cleansing and genocide\u201d, the court filings state. They also call on Meta to provide better pay and working conditions to content moderators focused on those regions and set up a restitution fund of KSh250-billion (about R35-billion) for victims of hate and violence incited on Facebook.<\/p>\n

In a sworn affidavit, Maereg argues that reports to Facebook about hate speech related to the civil war in Ethiopia, particularly against Tigrayans such as his family, were not acted on. He mentioned a specific post where a photo of his father was posted in October 2021 along with a message making unfounded accusations, that attracted comments calling for violence against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was killed because posts published on Facebook identified him, accused him falsely, leaked the address of where he lives and called for his death,\u201d Maereg wrote in the affidavit.<\/p>\n

He added that he received no response from Meta until 11 November 2021, over a week after his father\u2019s murder. Facebook responded that the post would be removed for violating community standards, he said.<\/p>\n

THE LAWSUIT FOLLOWS SIMILAR ALLEGATIONS MADE AGAINST META BY HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS ABOUT FACEBOOK\u2019S ROLE IN INCITING VIOLENCE IN MYANMAR<\/p>\n

The Tigray war is an armed conflict that started in November 2020, and is being fought between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front. In 2020, Tigray held its own regional elections that the Ethiopian government considered to be illegal, and responded by slashing federal funding to the region, which ultimately led to the war.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit follows similar allegations made against Meta by human rights groups about Facebook\u2019s role in inciting violence in Myanmar that contributed to the Rohingya genocide. Meta commissioned an independent report in 2018 that found that the company wasn\u2019t doing enough to prevent its platform from being used to \u201cfoment division and incite offline violence\u201d.<\/p>\n

In December 2021, Rohingya refugees filed a class-action lawsuit in San Francisco and a related action in the UK seeking $150-billion in compensation for Meta\u2019s role in amplifying hate speech.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Cape verde<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Cape verde. Meta Platforms is facing a lawsuit in Kenya\u2019s high court accusing the company of failing Africans by amplifying hate speech and incitement to violence on Facebook and calling for about US$2-billion (R35-billion) in restitution. The case has been filed by Ethiopian researchers Abrham Meareg and Fisseha Tekle, along with Kenyan human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,331,328],"class_list":["post-10719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-cape-verde","tag-cape-verde"],"yoast_head":"\nFacebook hit by a lawsuit over promoting hate speech in Africa - Cape Verde<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Meta Platforms is facing a lawsuit in Kenya\u2019s high court accusing the company of failing Africans by amplifying hate spe ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/cape-verde\/all-news\/facebook-hit-by-a-lawsuit-over-promoting-hate-speech-in-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Facebook hit by a lawsuit over promoting hate speech in Africa - 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