How Facebook became another front in Ethiopia’s civil war. My report: edition.cnn.com/2021/10/25/bus…
Facebook employees repeatedly sounded the alarm on the company's failure to curb the spread of posts inciting violence in "at risk" countries like Ethiopia, where a civil war has raged for the past year, internal documents seen by CNN show. #FacebookPapers
In one internal report, distributed in March, a Facebook team warned armed groups in Ethiopia were using the platform to incite violence against ethnic minorities in the "context of civil war." In a headline in bold, the team warned: "Current mitigation strategies are not enough"
Another report shared by a Facebook employee in June 2020 showed that the company had failed to build automated systems to detect misinformation or hate speech in Oromo or Amharic -- two of the most widely spoken languages spoken in Ethiopia.
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said one of her core motivations for gathering the internal documents was bringing to light "how badly Facebook is handling places like Ethiopia," where she suggested engagement-based ranking was fanning ethnic violence.
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