"Facebook owner to ‘assess feasibility’ of hate speech study in Ethiopia"

The owner of Facebook and Instagram has said it will “assess the feasibility” of conducting an independent human rights study related to its work in Ethiopia, after the company’s oversight board urged it to investigate how its platforms have been used to spread hate speech and unverified rumours in the country.

Meta was asked by its oversight board, which reviews the company’s content moderation decisions and policies, to conduct the study after it upheld the removal of a Facebook post alleging the involvement of ethnic Tigrayan civilians in atrocities in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. Because the platform had subsequently reinstated the post after an appeal by the user who posted it, Facebook was required to take it down again.

As part of the ruling, the board recommended that Facebook’s parent conduct an independent human rights due diligence assessment on how Facebook and Instagram “have been used to spread hate speech and unverified rumours that heighten the risk of violence in Ethiopia”. Writing in December last year, the board said the study should cover a period from June 2020 “to the present” and should take six months to complete. While the board’s decisions on content moderation decisions are binding, its policy recommendations are not.