{"id":1283,"date":"2021-11-23T22:58:51","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T21:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/23\/in-ethiopia-facebook-allowed-posts-inciting-violence-to-go-viral-for-years-the-companys-response-is-both-dismissive-and-ineffective-media-matters-for-america\/"},"modified":"2021-11-23T22:58:51","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T21:58:51","slug":"in-ethiopia-facebook-allowed-posts-inciting-violence-to-go-viral-for-years-the-companys-response-is-both-dismissive-and-ineffective-media-matters-for-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/23\/in-ethiopia-facebook-allowed-posts-inciting-violence-to-go-viral-for-years-the-companys-response-is-both-dismissive-and-ineffective-media-matters-for-america\/","title":{"rendered":"In Ethiopia, Facebook allowed posts inciting violence to go viral for years. The company&#039;s response is both dismissive and ineffective. &#8211; Media Matters for America"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p>Facebook has been ignoring its failures in the country for years. Now &#8212; even after being publicly called out &#8212; the company is still doing the bare minimum to save face. <br \/><span class=\"byline__label\">Written by<\/span> <a href=\"\/author\/rhea-bhatnagar\" hreflang=\"en\">Rhea Bhatnagar<\/a><br \/>       <span class=\"dateline__label\">Published<\/span>       <time datetime=\"2021-11-23T12:59:15-0500\">11\/23\/21 12:59 PM EST<\/time>     <br \/>Share<br \/>Comment<br \/>Facebook\u2019s lax approach to content moderation has resulted in the incitement of violence and the spread of hate speech in Ethiopia &#8212; despite the company designating the nation \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/10\/25\/business\/ethiopia-violence-facebook-papers-cmd-intl\/index.html\">at risk\u201d<\/a> and repeatedly <a href=\"https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2021\/why-facebook-keeps-failing-in-ethiopia\/\">proposing<\/a> to create resources for proper content moderation. Now, the company continues to placate its users by having high-level officials give <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/now\/facebook-defensive-over-fragile-countries-165543470.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACesiqUxzfK3bP_P_48ffQBuYYWI9Y6b0haAgmdU5KV5TnPp9UH_-4TXBDIP6K8KWkR5l-av_oxkX-VzS-05-gyPHIQxZXt4JbA7TR5hu6qPDhQl1nRIwHEZd20BRPMazcUPQOBRlguS_UcnwgfZOlaQo3eUk_34HQI3Yd3jcLeZ\">vague statements<\/a> and make\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2021\/11\/update-on-ethiopia\/\">empty promises<\/a> while demonstrating minimal actual progress.\u00a0<br \/>Ethiopia &#8212; with approximately\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/2021\/11\/06\/ethiopia-addis-ababa-tplf\/\">110 million people<\/a> and over <a href=\"https:\/\/openinternet.global\/news\/uprooting-hate-speech-challenging-task-content-moderation-ethiopia\">11 million<\/a> Facebook users &#8212; has been in a state of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/11\/03\/africa\/ethiopia-tigray-explainer-2-intl\/index.html\">civil unrest<\/a> for almost a year. In 2018, Prime Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-43567007\">Abiy Ahmed<\/a> came to power and was initially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usip.org\/publications\/2019\/04\/year-change-ethiopia\">praised<\/a> for promoting civil liberties, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-48803815\">releasing political prisoners<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/abiys-ethiopia-press-freedom-flourished-then-fear-returned-2021-05-28\/\">lifting restrictions on media<\/a>. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-11-03\/ethiopian-premier-s-wild-ride-from-nobel-peace-prize-to-siege?sref=Qjo1tp0z\">long-simmering political tensions<\/a> quickly returned between government forces and the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front, which was in power prior to Ahmed\u2019s election, eventually leading to violence.\u00a0<br \/>The fighting since then has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/06\/29\/world\/africa\/i-miss-home-the-war-spawned-a-wave-of-displacement.html\">displaced<\/a> over 1.7 million people in the Tigray region, and the United Nations aid chief <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/exclusive-some-350000-people-ethiopias-tigray-famine-un-document-2021-06-09\/\">warned<\/a> in October that hundreds of thousands there now face famine. Though human rights groups have found both sides to be responsible for atrocities, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2020\/11\/1077592\">reported<\/a> that government forces have committed massacres of ethnic Tigrayans and weaponized sexual assault against thousands of women. Now, the United States government is reportedly considering <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/ending-ethiopias-trade-status-us-weighs-sanctions-genocide\/story?id=80928248\">labeling<\/a> the actions by Ahmed&rsquo;s government as a genocide.\u00a0<br \/>The conflict has also included an escalation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eip.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Fake-News-Misinformation-and-Hate-Speech-in-Ethiopia.pdf\">hate speech<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theafricareport.com\/135011\/ethiopia-nigeria-facebook-criticised-for-allowing-hate-speech-flourish\/\">incitement to violence<\/a> online &#8212; much of which takes place on Facebook, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tesfanews.net\/ethiopia-disinformation-spreads-facebook-live-political-tensions-rise\/\">most popular social media<\/a> platform in Ethiopia, where it is regarded as \u201cbasically equal to the internet.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>Both activists and officials have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accessnow.org\/open-letter-to-facebook-protect-ethiopians\/\">voiced<\/a> their <a href=\"https:\/\/omar.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/rep-omar-sent-letter-condemning-facebook-s-role-ongoing-violence-ethiopia\">concerns<\/a> over the lack of moderation the company had within the nation, especially as it began to devolve into violence. In June 2020, popular activist and singer Hachalu Hundessa was <a href=\"https:\/\/openinternet.global\/news\/uprooting-hate-speech-challenging-task-content-moderation-ethiopia\">assassinated<\/a> after being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ethiopia-insight.com\/2020\/09\/10\/how-a-musicians-killing-exposed-the-media-in-ethiopia\/\">targeted by<\/a> a social media-based misinformation campaign. Afterward, there were violent protests throughout the country, resulting in several deaths and injuries.\u00a0<br \/>This was not the first instance of violence in Ethiopia resulting from misinformation spreading on Facebook. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/xg897a\/hate-speech-on-facebook-is-pushing-ethiopia-dangerously-close-to-a-genocide\">Vice News<\/a>, \u201cIn October 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2019\/11\/08\/ethiopia-will-explode-if-abiy-ahmed-doesnt-move-beyond-ethnic-based-politics\/\">a viral Facebook post led to the deaths of over 80 people<\/a>, and in May [2020], the U.N. published a report <a href=\"https:\/\/reliefweb.int\/report\/ethiopia\/visit-ethiopia-report-special-rapporteur-promotion-and-protection-right-freedom\">highlighting the dangers of hate speech on its platform<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<br \/>It is difficult to overstate the scope of Facebook\u2019s role as a source of misinformation in the country. In an April study examining \u201cfake news misinformation and hate speech in Ethiopia,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eip.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Fake-News-Misinformation-and-Hate-Speech-in-Ethiopia.pdf\">European Institute of Peace<\/a> found that Facebook was responsible for a majority (58%) of all sampled fake news stories in Ethiopian media, while the platform alone accounted for almost 80% of such examples on social media.\u00a0<br \/>And this problem is not new, either. Ethiopian <a href=\"https:\/\/globalvoices.org\/2019\/10\/18\/how-ethiopias-ruling-coalition-created-a-playbook-for-disinformation\/\">political mis- and disinformation<\/a> campaigns have spread for years on Facebook. On the platform, disputes between rival politicians have \u201cushered an intense wave of political polarization freighted with misinformation,\u201d and the ruling party\u2019s manipulation tactics used to sway public opinion also \u201cserve[d] as a blueprint for opposition groups to <a href=\"https:\/\/globalvoices.org\/2018\/01\/20\/leaked-documents-show-that-ethiopias-ruling-elites-are-hiring-social-media-trolls-and-watching-porn\/\">attack<\/a> their opponents and the government.\u201d\u00a0<br \/>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accessnow.org\/open-letter-to-facebook-protect-ethiopians\/\">July 2020<\/a>, digital rights group Access Now wrote an open letter to Facebook pointing out the platform\u2019s shortcomings in the region and reminding of its past failures in countries such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/facebook\/facebook-has-continued-fail-myanmar-now-its-people-have-pay-price\">Myanmar<\/a> &#8212; where the company\u2019s lack of moderation helped fuel a military coup. The group listed specific areas in which Facebook could improve itself to further benefit its users in Ethiopia, such as facilitating access for trusted partners during any internet shutdowns and informing Ethiopian users about reporting mechanisms and relevant platform rules.\u00a0<br \/>Miranda Sissons, director of human rights policy &amp; engagement at Facebook, wrote back nearly four months later, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accessnow.org\/cms\/assets\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Ethiopia-Response.pdf\">claiming<\/a> Ethiopia was on the platforms\u2019 \u201chighest priority tier\u201d and that the company had \u201cresearched, built, and deployed multiple interventions\u201d to help minimize \u201cinflammatory content.\u201d<br \/>But Facebook has been making vague promises similar to Sissons\u2019 statement for years and has refused to be transparent about the steps it is taking to improve its content moderation in Ethiopia.<br \/>Following last month\u2019s release of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/business\/facebook-papers-takeaways.html\">Facebook Papers<\/a> &#8212; internal documents made public by whistleblower Frances Haugen showing the company\u2019s myriad failures to moderate its platforms &#8212; a spokesperson for Facebook <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/qjbpd7\/how-facebook-is-stoking-a-civil-war-in-ethiopia\">claimed<\/a>:<br \/>Over the past two years, we have actively focused and invested in Ethiopia, adding more staff with local expertise, operational resources, and additional review capacity to expand the number of local languages we support to include Amharic, Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya. We have worked to improve our proactive detection so that we can remove more harmful content at scale. We have also partnered extensively with international and local experts to better understand and mitigate the biggest risks on the platform.<br \/>But researchers and activists are quick to note that Facebook has done the bare minimum to stop hate speech from circulating on its platform.<br \/>In 2019, the company opened its first content moderation center in Africa, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cima.ned.org\/blog\/uprooting-hate-speech-the-challenging-task-of-content-moderation-in-ethiopia\/\">claiming<\/a> it would employ 100 people through third-party services to cover all markets on the continent. However, the company did not divulge which languages it would be monitoring and how those services would be allocated; Ethiopia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unicef.org\/esa\/sites\/unicef.org.esa\/files\/2018-09\/UNICEF-2016-Language-and-Learning-Ethiopia.pdf\">alone<\/a> has 89 native languages. As recently as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-drug-cartels-human-traffickers-response-is-weak-documents-11631812953\">September<\/a>, the platform still hadn\u2019t translated its Community Standards into languages used in Ethiopia.<br \/>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/10\/25\/business\/ethiopia-violence-facebook-papers-cmd-intl\/index.html\">CNN<\/a>, Facebook has also partnered with \u201cAFP Fact Check and PesaCheck, an East Africa-based non-profit initiative run by Code for Africa,\u201d to hire six full-time fact-checkers to cover four of the country\u2019s language, one of whom recently had to relocate from Ethiopia \u201cdue to intimidation.\u201d<br \/>And the company\u2019s AI monitoring system is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/facebook-content-moderation-ai-cant-speak-all-languages-2021-9\">not able to understand<\/a> the cultural context behind varying slurs or statements posted to its platform, allowing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/technology\/facebook-knew-about-failed-police-abusive-content-globally-documents-2021-10-25\/\">conspiracy theories<\/a>\u00a0to persist. Vice News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/qjbpd7\/how-facebook-is-stoking-a-civil-war-in-ethiopia\">reports<\/a> that \u201can <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2018\/04\/06\/asia\/myanmar-facebook-social-media-genocide-intl\/index.html\">internal audit<\/a> in 2020 found that Facebook did not have automated detection systems for flagging hate speech in either of Ethiopia\u2019s largest languages, Amharic and Oromo.\u201d (The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eip.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Fake-News-Misinformation-and-Hate-Speech-in-Ethiopia.pdf\">April study<\/a> by the European Institute of Peace found that \u201cthe vast majority of the fake news examples\u00a0\u00bb &#8212; 81% &#8212; were in Amharic.)<br \/>Berhan Taye, an activist in the country and Africa policy lead at Access Now, insists that Facebook needs more moderators who understand what is happening in Ethiopia.\u00a0<br \/>\u201cWhen the violence erupts offline, online content that calls for ethnic attacks, discrimination, and destruction of property goes viral,\u201d Taye told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/xg897a\/hate-speech-on-facebook-is-pushing-ethiopia-dangerously-close-to-a-genocide\">Vice News<\/a>. \u201cFacebook&rsquo;s inaction helps propagate hate and polarization in a country and has a devastating impact on the narrative and extent of the violence.\u201d<br \/>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Community-Standards-Enforcement-Report-Press-Call-Transcript-11.09.21.pdf\">recent call<\/a> with high-level officials at Facebook, a reporter asked how the company calculates its metrics abroad and if it has plans to publicize these figures in the near future. Facebook Vice President of Integrity Guy Rosen gave a non-answer, responding that \u201cmore country level metrics\u201d are \u201cdefinitely something that&rsquo;s top of mind for us and something that we&rsquo;re \u2013 that we&rsquo;re going to look into in the future. And we know that it&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s valuable to people and we&rsquo;re looking to share more.\u00a0\u00bb<br \/>But Facebook\u2019s lack of upfront transparency and its lax approach to content moderation\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-facebook-languages-insight\/facebooks-flood-of-languages-leaves-it-struggling-to-monitor-content-idUSKCN1RZ0DW\">in non-English languages<\/a> has already proven disastrous in Ethiopia. Despite <a href=\"https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2021\/facebook-papers-reveal-staggering-failures-in-global-south\/\">clear examples<\/a> of the platforms\u2019 missteps and mistakes, the company continues to feign interest in solving these problems only once its failures have been publicly reported.<br \/>       <span class=\"dateline-compact__type\">         <svg viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" class=\"icon icon--article\"  aria-labelledby=\"icon-label--article\" >           <title id=\"icon-label--article\">Article<\/title>          <use xlink:href=\"#article\"><\/use>   <\/svg>      <\/span>      <time datetime=\"2021-11-23T15:18:23-0500\">11\/23\/21 3:18 PM EST<\/time> <br \/>       <span class=\"dateline-compact__type\">         <svg viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" class=\"icon icon--article\"  aria-labelledby=\"icon-label--article\" >           <title id=\"icon-label--article\">Article<\/title>          <use xlink:href=\"#article\"><\/use>   <\/svg>      <\/span>      <time datetime=\"2021-11-23T12:59:15-0500\">11\/23\/21 12:59 PM EST<\/time> <br \/>       <span class=\"dateline-compact__type\">         <svg viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" class=\"icon icon--article\"  aria-labelledby=\"icon-label--article\" >           <title id=\"icon-label--article\">Article<\/title>          <use xlink:href=\"#article\"><\/use>   <\/svg>      <\/span>      <time datetime=\"2021-11-23T12:56:54-0500\">11\/23\/21 12:56 PM EST<\/time> <br \/>       <span class=\"dateline-compact__type\">         <svg viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" class=\"icon icon--article\"  aria-labelledby=\"icon-label--article\" >           <title id=\"icon-label--article\">Article<\/title>          <use xlink:href=\"#article\"><\/use>   <\/svg>      <\/span>      <time datetime=\"2021-11-23T11:12:30-0500\">11\/23\/21 11:12 AM EST<\/time> <br \/>       <span class=\"dateline-compact__type\">         <svg viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" class=\"icon icon--study\"  aria-labelledby=\"icon-label--study\" >           <title id=\"icon-label--study\">Research\/Study<\/title>          <use xlink:href=\"#study\"><\/use>   <\/svg>      <\/span>      <time datetime=\"2021-11-23T11:00:08-0500\">11\/23\/21 11:00 AM EST<\/time> <br \/>       <span class=\"dateline-compact__type\">         <svg viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" class=\"icon icon--narrative\"  aria-labelledby=\"icon-label--narrative\" >           <title id=\"icon-label--narrative\">Narrative\/Timeline<\/title>          <use xlink:href=\"#narrative\"><\/use>   <\/svg>      <\/span>      <time datetime=\"2021-02-25T10:47:22-0500\">02\/25\/21 10:47 AM EST<\/time> <br \/>       <span class=\"dateline-compact__type\">         <svg viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" class=\"icon icon--article\"  aria-labelledby=\"icon-label--article\" >           <title id=\"icon-label--article\">Article<\/title>          <use xlink:href=\"#article\"><\/use>   <\/svg>      <\/span>      <time datetime=\"2021-09-01T14:30:05-0400\">09\/01\/21 2:30 PM EDT<\/time> <br \/>       <span class=\"dateline-compact__type\">         <svg viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" class=\"icon icon--study\"  aria-labelledby=\"icon-label--study\" >           <title id=\"icon-label--study\">Research\/Study<\/title>          <use xlink:href=\"#study\"><\/use>   <\/svg>      <\/span>      <time datetime=\"2021-11-23T11:00:08-0500\">11\/23\/21 11:00 AM EST<\/time> <br \/>&copy; 2021 Media Matters for America<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/facebook\/ethiopia-facebook-allowed-posts-inciting-violence-go-viral-years-companys-response-both\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facebook has been ignoring its failures in the country for years. Now &#8212; even after being publicly called out &#8212; the company is still doing the bare minimum to save face. Written by Rhea Bhatnagar Published 11\/23\/21 12:59 PM EST ShareCommentFacebook\u2019s lax approach to content moderation has resulted in the incitement of violence and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}