A New Lawsuit Accuses Meta of Inflaming Civil War in Ethiopia

Meareg Amare, a professor of chemistry at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia, was shot and killed outside of his home in November of 2011. Amare, who was of Tigrayan descent, was accused of stealing equipment from the university, selling it, and using the money to buy property. People said he should die in the comments. Abrham Amare, Amare's son, appealed to Facebook to remove the posts, but they didn't reply for weeks. Abrham received a reply from Facebook eight days after his father was murdered, which said that one of the posts targeting his father had been removed.

He blames Facebook for his father's death.

Abrham and fellow researchers have filed a lawsuit against Meta in Kenya, accusing the company of allowing hate speech to run rampant on the platform, causing widespread violence. The suit calls for the company to add moderation staff and deprioritize hate speech.

Facebook can't be allowed to focus on profits at the expense of our communities. The director of Foxglove, a UK-based nonprofit that tackles human rights abuses by global technology giants, said that Facebook has fanned the flames of war in Ethiopia. The organization supports the petition To prevent that from continuing, the company has clear tools that can be adjusted to demote viral hate, hire more local staff, and make sure their work is safe and fair.

Ethiopia has been involved in a civil war. The Prime Minister sent troops into Tigray to respond to attacks on federal military bases. There is evidence of crimes against humanity and a campaign of ethnic cleansing against ethnic Tigrayans by the government of Ethiopia.

According to the petition, Fisseha Tekle believes that Facebook endangers the lives of his family. Supporters of Ethiopia's Tigray campaign have criticized the organizations for not putting the blame for wartime atrocities squarely at the feet of Tigrayan rebels. The federal Ethiopia government and the rebels were both found to be responsible for the systematic murders and rapes of civilians. There are no innocent parties who have not committed human rights violations in this conflict.

In a statement shared with WIRED, Foxglove spoke of witnessing "first hand" Facebook's alleged role in tarnishing research aimed at shining a light on government-sponsored massacres.

The narratives targeting and dehumanizing Tigrayans have spread through the use of Facebook. The Prime Minister referred to Tigrayan rebels as "weeds" in a July 2021. The company lacked the ability to moderate content in most of the country's more than 45 languages.