A number of enraged Ethiopians are suing Facebook for allegedly fueling the destructive war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
Meta would be sued for $2bn (£1.6bn) and for changing its algorithm by this group.
Some of the violence during the war may have been prevented if Facebook had moderated its content, they said.
According to Abrham, his father was killed by armed men on bikes after a post on Facebook threatened to harm anyone who helped him
The man also pointed out that Facebook posts before the attack slandered and revealed identifying information about Abrham’s father. Despite reporting these issues, Facebook failed to address them and left threatening posts until the man was killed.
While one of the posts was removed after his father died, another, which the platform had promised to remove, remained online until December 8, 2022.
My father would still be alive if Facebook had stopped spreading hate and moderated posts properly,” Abrham said.
“We employ staff with local knowledge and expertise and continue to develop our capabilities to catch violating content in the country’s most widely spoken languages, including Amharic, Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya,” Meta said.
According to a Facebook representative, “local civil society organizations and international institutions guide our safety and integrity work in Ethiopia.”
In the Tigray war, which lasted over two years, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, and 400,000 others suffered famine-like conditions.
