Meta Sued For Over $2 Billion in Ethiopia Killing Case

The legal case alleges that Facebook algorithm helped spread hate and violence throughout the civil war

Abraham Meareg, the son of a professor and the son of an Ethiopian academic claims that his father was killed after being continuously attacked in a number of different Facebook posts.

Following the killing, Meareg is now amongst the list of Ethiopian people that have filed a lawsuit against Meta and are claiming that Facebook algorithm helped spread hate and violence throughout the civil war.

These lawsuit filers are demanding $2bn fund for all those people that lost their lives after becoming a victim of hate on Facebook. Not just this, but the lawsuit filers are also demanding a change in the platform’s algorithm.

Responding to the lawsuit Meta says that it invested heavy amounts into content moderation policies. A representative while speaking on the topic said that “hate speech and incitement to violence were against the platform’s rules”.

“Our safety-and-integrity work in Ethiopia is guided by feedback from local civil society organizations and international institutions” they added.

Abraham Meareg’s father ‘Prof Meareg Amare Abrha’ was one of the thousands of Ethiopians that died in the civil war. On 3 November 2021, the professor left his university and armed gunmen started following him, upon reaching his residence, the professor was shot down at a close range.

Right before the assisination took place, Facebook posts revealing the professor’s photos, location and other information were circulating all around.

Despite several complaints these posts were not removed and according to Mr Meareg some of them were there even after his father’s death.

“If Facebook had just stopped the spread of hate and moderated posts properly, my father would still be alive,” Mr Meareg said.

Now Meareg states that he wants no other family to suffer like his family did and demands a public apology from Meta.

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