Kenya’s Threat to Ban Facebook Could Backfire

Global Witness and Foxglove found that Meta continued to approve ads in Amharic that included hate speech and calls for violence. Ethiopia's ongoing conflict has been linked to the spread of hate speech on Facebook.

Crider believes that Facebook should invest more in its moderation practices. She is worried that the threat of a ban will allow the company to distract attention from the problems it has left unaddressed.

It's either an essentially unmoderated and unregulated Facebook or no Facebook if the regulators look at it and think they're going to make them do something that might cost them some money.

Crider says the company can do things like deprioritizing live videos, limiting inflammatory content, and banning election related ads in the run up to the vote, among others.

Meta's director of public policy for East Africa and the Horn of Africa told WIRED that the company has taken extensive steps to help catch hate speech and inflammatory content in the country. Despite these efforts, we know that there will be examples of things we miss or we take down in error, as both machines and people make mistakes. Meta didn't answer questions about the number of content moderators it has, the nature of its conversations with the government of the country, or who speaks which language.

The researchers proved that what the company was saying was hogwash. Madung said that the fact that Meta allowed ads despite a review process raises questions about their ability to handle other forms of hate speech.

Madung says banning Meta's platforms won't get rid of the problem because it doesn't address the root cause. He says that this is not a question that can be asked alone. There needs to be a middle ground between heavy-handed approaches and platform accountability.

The cabinet secretary for internet and communications technologies, Joseph Mucheru, said on Saturday that the media will continue to enjoy press freedom in the country. It's not clear what legal framework will be used to suspend Facebook. The government is on record The internet is not being shut down. There is no legal framework that would allow the NCIC to order Facebook to be suspended.

Andere said thatPlatforms like Meta have failed in their handling of misinformation and hate speech. Governments will use that as an excuse for internet shutdowns and app blocking, when it should instead spur companies toward greater investment in human content moderation, and doing so in an ethical and human-rights-respecting manner

Madung is worried that the damage may already be done regardless of the government's decision. He says that the effects will be different. The precedent is officially out there and could be referred to at any time.