Snapshot:

In December 2022, two Ethiopians and a Kenyan NGO filed a lawsuit against Meta (Facebook’s parent company) in Kenya’s High Court over allegations the company and its platforms amplified hateful posts through their algorithms that led to ethnic violence and killings during the armed conflict in northern Ethiopia from November 2020 to November 2022. The lawsuit is ongoing. 

Factual background

In 2022, a report by the UN International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia found that social media and especially Facebook played a critical role in dissemination of hate speech that fueled the war in Tigray Ethiopia between November 2020 and November 2022.

One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is Abrham Meareg, whose father Meareg Amare, a professor at Bahir Dar University, was killed on 3 November 2021 after hate-filled posts about him circulated on Facebook. Despite being warned weeks in advance, Facebook only removed these posts eight days after his death. His son is the first plaintiff in the lawsuit. The second plaintiff is, Fisseha Tekle, an Amnesty International employee who has been targeted by online abuse linked to his human rights work in Ethiopia.

Legal argument

The lawsuit argues that Meta’s algorithms prioritised violent and hateful content, that lead to ethnic violence and killings in Ethiopia. It also criticises Meta for failing to implement crisis-specific algorithm adjustments in Ethiopia and for inadequate content moderation investment in the Global South, disproportionately harming marginalised communities. It further contends that Meta's failure to act on these posts contributed to the violence.

The plaintiffs seek to halt Facebook's algorithms recommending this type of content, ask Meta to change its content moderation practices, and demand a $1.6 billion victims' fund.

Legal Proceedings

In December 2022, two Ethiopians and a Kenyan NGO, the Katiba Institute, filed a lawsuit against Meta (Facebook’s parent company) in Kenya’s High Court over allegations the company and its platforms amplified hateful posts through their algorithms that led to ethnic violence and killings during the armed conflict in northern Ethiopia from November 2020 to November 2022.

Meta’s legal team has argued that the case should not be heard in Kenya because the company is registered in the US and that Meta’s terms of service require such claims to be filed in the US, and that the alleged human rights abuses occurred in Ethiopia.

In September 2024, a hearing was scheduled to determine if Kenyan courts have jurisdiction in the case.

In April 2025, the High Court ruled that the lawsuit can proceed in Kenya.

The case is ongoing.

News items

£2bn Meta court case over Ethiopian hate speech clears legal hurdle, Bureau of Investigative Journalism 3 April 2025

Kenya: High Court to decide jurisdiction status in landmark Meta case, Amnesty international, 24 Sep 2024

Meta faces $1.6bn lawsuit over Facebook posts inciting violence in Tigray war, The Guardian, 14 Dec 2022