Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is now facing a $2 billion lawsuit over their alleged inability or unwillingness to moderate their content, which the plaintiffs say led to murder and increased ethnic conflict in Ethiopia.
Violence has gripped the country for years, but has been especially acute since the end of 2020 when firefights between the Tigrayan rebels and the Ethiopian government reached it zenith. The brutality was not simply relegated to military combatants, however and citizens were often the victims of this explosion of violence.
Over the past two years, it is estimated that upwards of 600,000 people have died either in direct violence, or due to the famine that this conflict has caused. A Tigrayan professor and researcher, Meareg Amare Abrha, was one of the many that were murdered during this period.
He was shot by gunmen in November 2021. Abrham Meareg, the professor’s son, is claiming that his death was, at least in part, due to posts on Facebook. Preceding the shooting, numerous posts threatening violence, using ethnic slurs, and disclosing his address, along with pictures of the researcher were shared on Facebook.
Abrham, and a fellow researcher, have claimed that many such posts were left up, sometimes indefinitely. Others were taken down, but only after a long period of visibility. Their lawyer has even argued that Meta prioritizes such violent and divisive content.
This case is of course far from the first instance of Facebook facing claims of fueling conflict and ethnic violence. The company has even admitted that it was “too slow to act” regarding posts promoting genocide in Myanmar. It has face similar allegations in places like Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.
Because these conflicts are happening in less economically developed countries, they unfortunately often go unnoticed my many. However, this is plainly a deadly issue. It is made worse by the fact that Meta’s Facebook is essentially the internet in many of these countries.
Unless compelled by international bodies, this issue is unlikely to get any better. Social media companies are driven by their algorithms, and to quote an old saying, ‘if it bleeds, it leads.’