A New Lawsuit Accuses Meta of Inflaming Civil War in Ethiopia
WiredMAR 14 2023
Meta, yet again, has blood on its hands — its lack of content moderation or sensible policy has led to the death of Meareg Amare Abrha and possibly many others. This is what happens when large Western companies fail to even attempt to understand the complexities of social conflict outside of their regions. The level of negligence Meta has shown in this case should be considered criminal, as its inability to stop the spread of violent rhetoric has directly led to increased violence and death.
Though Meta certainly has work to do regarding content moderation, this is a new frontier in human history and it will take time to refine a new system. Facebook flagged Ethiopia as being at “dire” risk of violence in 2021 and put its most effective resources towards fighting hate speech and violent rhetoric. Unfortunately, Ethiopian users didn't engage with hate speech in the same way users from other regions did, so Meta had to think on the fly to adjust to this difference.