A Kenyan court has filed a lawsuit against the American company Meta, accusing it of inciting violence and hatred in African countries, and demanding $2 billion in damages for victims of hate speech. According to Bloomberg, citing court documents, the lawsuit was brought by Ethiopian researchers Abraham Mearag and Fisiha Tekle, along with a group of Ethiopian human rights activists from the Ktiba Institute, with support from the nonprofit organization Foxglove. This follows the murder of Amari Mearag in 2021 due to a series of inciting posts that spread on social media targeting him.
The report states that activists are urging Meta (the owner of Facebook) to focus its efforts on monitoring content in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, specifically in countries suffering from wars, conflicts, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. They are also demanding that the company provide higher salaries for employees overseeing content moderation in these areas to encourage better performance and establish a compensation fund of $2 billion to support victims of the widespread violence and hate speech on Facebook. The report notes that Meta has taken necessary measures to monitor content that violates its policies in Ethiopia.
