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Facebook's System Approved Dehumanizing Hate Speech Inciting Genocide During Ethiopia Civil War

Jun 9, 2022San Francisco, CA, USA2 sources

Summary

In June 2022, Global Witness and Foxglove tested Facebook's content moderation system by submitting ads containing dehumanizing hate speech inciting genocide in Ethiopia. Despite the explicit nature of the content, Facebook's system approved the ads. After being informed of the issue, Meta acknowledged the problem.

Incident Details

Domain

Misinfo & Disinfo

Deliberate or negligent spread of false or misleading information with harmful real-world effects.

Harm Types

Misinformation

False or misleading content spread without intent to deceive.

Algorithmic Amplification

Platforms

Companies

Who Was Affected

Age

mixed

Gender

mixed

Group

Racial/Ethnic Minority

Sources

2

Facebook's system approved dehumanizing hate speech inciting genocide during Ethiopia civil war

Global Witness: Facebook continues to approve hate speech inciting violence and genocide during Ethiopia civil war