Do Human Rights Violations Belong To Facebook? An Ethiopian Tigray Campaign Suspices Lawyer’s Comment on the Facebook Research in Ethiopia
According to the petition, Fisseha Tekle, the lead researcher in Ethiopia, has implicated Facebook in spreading abusive content that jeopardized the lives of his family. Since 2021, Amnesty and Tekle have drawn widespread rebuke from supporters of Ethiopia’s Tigray campaign—seemingly for not placing the blame for wartime atrocities squarely at the feet of Tigrayan separatists. The rebels and the federal Ethiopia government were found to be responsible for systematic murders and rapes of civilians by Tekle’s research. Tekle told reporters during an October press conference: “There’s no innocent party which has not committed human rights violations in this conflict.”
Today, Abrham, as well as fellow researchers and Amnesty International legal adviser Fisseha Tekle, filed a lawsuit against Meta in Kenya, alleging that the company has allowed hate speech to run rampant on the platform, causing widespread violence. The suit calls for the company to deprioritize hateful content in the platform’s algorithm and to add to its content moderation staff.
They’re also asking the court to deliver what would be a legal first: forced changes to Facebook’s algorithm, which has long been blamed for not doing enough to limit the reach of incendiary content.
Facebook is a big gun: a lawsuit against the Ethiopian Prime Minister for exposing hate and incitement against war in the Tigray region
The war in Ethiopia has been raging since 2020. The Prime Minister sent troops into the Tigray region in response to attacks on federal military bases. The April report by human rights organization found evidence of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing against ethnic Tigrayans by the government of Ethiopia.
Language is one of the main factors in the company’s moderation. The lawsuit claims that of 85 languages spoken in Ethiopia, only three were covered by Facebook’s moderation practices.
A Meta spokeswoman said the company has strict rules regarding what’s allowed on its platforms and is continuing to develop its capabilities to catch violating content.
“Hate speech and incitement to violence are against these rules, and we invest heavily in teams and technology to help us find and remove this content,” the spokesperson said in a statement shared with NPR.
“Feedback from local civil society organizations and international institutions guides our safety and integrity work in Ethiopia. We employ staff with local knowledge and expertise,” the spokesperson said.
Another lawsuit filed in Kenya this year alleges that the hub created an exploitative and unsafe work environment, exposing moderators to high volumes of traumatic content and paying less than promised.
The lawsuit says that Meareg was the target of false accusations that he was associated with a violent rebel group because of his race, after a number of Facebook posts claimed that he was.
In Ethiopia,facebook is a big gun. […] People use Facebook as a reliable source of information because they don’t have trust in state media. Something posted on Facebook is considered a magic bullet — a valid thing.”
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/17/1142873282/facebook-meta-lawsuit-ethiopia-kenya-abrham-amare
Facebook post-crime against a Kenyan professor: Fisseha Tekle, an Ethiopian citizen who reported into Ethiopia’s violence, is seeking asylum
Like Abrham, Meareg’s friends and neighbors also warned him of the posts, but the professor chose to return from an overseas trip and was killed within weeks, his son said.
Abrham said in the affidavit that he asked Facebook to take down posts about his father after he died. Some posts still remained up as of this week.
An Ethiopian national, Abrham, is in the U.S. and is seeking asylum. Reporting violent posts to Facebook is still a daily ritual.
According to court documents, Fisseha Tekle, a legal adviser atAmnesty International who reports into his country’s violence, became a victim of online abuse because of his work.
According to a statement, one of seven human rights organizations named as legal support for the plaintiffs in the case, Tekle has moved to Kenya because of his fear for his family’s safety.
Researchers say media played a big part in the country being divided. Three of the country’s biggest outlets are divided along ethnic lines.
Ethiopia is on Facebook’s list of countries that are at the highest risk for conflict, but it is especially challenging to moderate due to the number of languages spoken in the country.
According to data from The World Bank, the internet usage rate in Ethiopia is one of the lowest in the world.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/17/1142873282/facebook-meta-lawsuit-ethiopia-kenya-abrham-amare
Facebook shouldn’t tolerate violent content in the e-commerce world; it’s the wrong thing to do, not the right way to do it
She said in her statement that investing adequately in the African market has caused Africans to die from unsafe systems.
The lawsuit says that Facebook’s earnings are partially tied to how long users stay on the platform, which leaves the company with little incentive to remove eye-catching violent content. Years of internal and external studies suggest that Facebook’s algorithm, the platform’s engagement engine, spurs extremist beliefs.
Abrham told NPR that demands like these constitute straightforward ways to treat everyone with dignity, which should be a chief goal of a platform that claims to value human connection.
“After all that they’ve lost, there is still life. A family is in distress and has been mistreated arrogantly.