Legal action has been launched against Facebook owners Meta in Nairobi, Kenya. Petitioners in the case claim that the company promoted posts that led to ethnic violence and killings in Ethiopia, due to the way Facebook algorithms recommend content.1 Over the past two years thousands of civilians have died in Ethiopia in various conflicts, the most prominent being in the Tigray region. The petitioners in the case want to compel Meta to create a $1.6 billion victims’ fund.
The case came at the end of 2022, a relatively volatile year in the world of social networks with Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the deteriorating content moderation of the platform.
