- Meta faces a $1.6 billion lawsuit for allegedly failing to moderate hate speech in Ethiopia.
- The suit was brought by the family of a professor who was killed after Facebook posts targeted him.
Facebook must "unplug the hate machine."
That's the message of an open letter from dozens of leading human rights and tech accountability groups who say the platform was weaponized to stir up ethnic conflicts and target individuals during a recent civil war in Ethiopia.
The letter was addressed to Facebook's parent company, Meta, and was prompted in part by an investigation by Insider, its authors noted in a press release. Insider previously spoke to six Ethiopian partners who said that Meta often ignored warnings from its own local experts about hateful content that was appearing and spreading on Facebook.
"By failing to invest in and deploy adequate safety improvements to your software or employ sufficient content moderators, Meta is fanning the flames of hatred, and contributing to thousands of deaths in Ethiopia," the open letter said.
Since 2017, when Facebook was used to incite violence against Rohinga Muslims in Myanmar, Meta has cited its Trusted Partner Network as a bulwark against the proliferation of hateful and incendiary posts on its platform. These partners are contracted by Meta to provide local and linguistic expertise.
Meta's "trusted partners" in Ethiopia told Insider that the company either ignored or were severely delayed in responding to their urgent attempts to flag hateful and inciting content, even as a civil war and a second sectarian conflict were underway.
This may have had deadly consequences.
Insider's reporting also revealed that one of those trusted partners warned Meta about posts targeting Meareg Amare, a Tigrayan chemistry professor, in the fall of 2021. But Meta failed to act. Amare was murdered outside his home five weeks after the first post about him appeared on Facebook.
A spokesperson for Meta did not dispute the trusted partner's account, which was similar to complaints raised by five other trusted partners interviewed by Insider.
Amare's son and two other petitioners have since brought a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Meta in Kenya, alleging that its algorithm prioritized harmful and dangerous content and helped spread hate speech in Ethiopia. Cori Crider, the director of Foxglove Legal, a UK-based legal nonprofit handling the case, said they intend to use Insider's article as "critical new evidence" in their case.
"It's vital because it shows clearly that Facebook knew that Tigrayan intellectuals and professors were being repeatedly threatened and attacked on social media — and failed to act," Crider said of Insider's reporting. "Had Facebook staff acted on these warnings, the Professor might still be with us today."
The Facebook posts targeting Professor Amare falsely accused him of funneling funds and equipment to the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which was fighting a civil war against Ethiopian federal forces and allied groups.
Amare was shot outside his home by a group of armed militia men, who repeated the slurs made against him on Facebook as he lay dying, according to the lawsuit.
Last month, a judge in Kenya's High Court, where the lawsuit is being heard, ruled that the case can continue and that Meta can be served with legal papers in the landmark lawsuit.
Meta says that it cannot discuss pending litigation. "Feedback from local civil society organizations and international institutions guides our safety and integrity work in Ethiopia," the company told media when the lawsuit was filed.
Meta also faces a lawsuit brought by Rohingya Muslims in the UK who allege that hate speech was allowed to flourish on Facebook in the months leading up to massacres in Myanmar in 2017.