By AFP
Kenya can try Meta, parent company of Facebook, over allegations the social media platform’s algorithm encouraged the spread of hateful content during a civil war in Ethiopia, a court said Friday, paving the way for a legal showdown.
Two Ethiopian citizens and a local NGO accuse Facebook of promoting harmful content during the 2020-22 war between Ethiopia’s federal government and rebels in the Tigray region.
Abrham Meareg says his father, a university professor, was killed following posts on Facebook in November 2021, while Fisseha Tekle, an Amnesty International researcher, says he was targeted with hate speech over his work.
Meta had argued that it could only be tried in the United States.
But the Kenyan court ruled on Thursday that it had jurisdiction, in part because Facebook’s content moderators were based in Kenya at the time. The ruling was published on Friday.
The case raises “fundamental concerns on acts or omissions that may have been made regarding content posted on Facebook Platform by content moderators based in Kenya that may impact on observance of human rights beyond Kenya,” the court said.
Meareg said he was “grateful” for the decision.
“Mark Zuckerberg may imagine that justice begins and ends at the US border. I am happy that the court has demonstrated today that is not the case,” he said in a statement.
The court said a trial — for which a date has not been set — would examine the extent to which social media platforms and their algorithms are responsible when human rights violations have occurred.
“These are matters of general public importance relating to protection of fundamental rights and freedoms in the digital era,” it said.
Meta is appealing the decision, according to Amnesty International.
The company said it did not wish to comment when asked by AFP.
– ‘Not above African justice’ –
Meta has also tried unsuccessfully to block two other court cases in Kenya in which former content moderators are suing the company, which also owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, over poor working conditions and layoffs.
Foxglove, a British NGO that seeks to hold tech companies to account, has supported the cases.
“Mark Zuckerberg’s strategy seems to be to cosy up to Donald Trump and hope this gives Meta immunity around the world,” Foxglove said in a statement.
“In Nairobi, today, the courts have reiterated that Meta is not above African justice.”
In 2021, a Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen cited Ethiopia as an example of a country where violence had been “amplified by social media”.
Facebook has long struggled to tamp down hate speech there due to the dozens of different dialects spoken among Ethiopians, she said.
“The idea of looking at countries outside the US and Europe as mere markets where profits can be made in the absence of accountability must be challenged,” said Mandi Mudarikwa, head of strategic litigation at Amnesty International, among the global organisations supporting the case against Meta.
AFP is involved in a partnership with Meta providing fact-checking services in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.