The High Court has ruled that Facebook's parent company, Meta, can be sued in Kenya over its alleged role in promoting content that contributed to ethnic violence in neighbouring Ethiopia.
According to Reuters, the court, in its ruling delivered on Thursday, decided that Meta can face legal charges over alleged hate speech on Facebook during the 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia.
In the case filed by Katiba Institute and two Ethiopian researchers, the plaintiffs alleged that Facebook's recommendation systems amplified violent posts in Ethiopia, including several that preceded the murder of the father of one of the researchers.
Additionally, the lawsuit claimed that Meta failed to exercise reasonable care in training its algorithms to identify dangerous posts and in hiring staff to police content in the languages covered by its regional moderation hub in Nairobi.
