He is accused of continuing to allow Facebook activists to commit genocide during the escalating war in Ethiopia.
Bureau of Investigation Journalism (TBIJ) and the Observer Detected Facebook is still allowing users to post hateful and misleading content. While this is known to be a source of tension, it has also led to claims of indifference on the huge social network.
The investigation tracked down relatives who linked Facebook posts to the killings. A senior member of the Ethiopian media accused the organization of “standing in its way when the country collapsed”.
The allegations come amid a focus on Facebook content, and he has previously been accused of playing a role in the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar.
On Wednesday, Meta Mark Zuckerberg announced that former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Craig would take over the presidency of international affairs, a move echoed by hacker Francis Hawgen, who said the move was intended to help the company change its name. Ethnic violence in Ethiopia
The Board of Trustees is concerned about the use of the forum to spread hate speech on Facebook as it seeks to conduct an independent inquiry into its activities in Ethiopia.
TBIJ and Observer The interviewees interviewed a number of fact-finding people, civil society organizations, and human rights activists in the country. He described Facebook support as less than it should be.
Others said that aid requests were ignored and that meetings were not possible.
He said the defeats had exacerbated clashes between government forces and armed opposition in the Tigray region in November 2020, killing thousands and displacing millions.
Rehobot Ayalew Ethiopian Fact Check Initiative Hackcheck “Facebook is considered reliable because most people have little media knowledge.
see you later. [Facebook] Scary and hateful images. You are not getting support from the forum itself, this kind of content allows.
You can do more. [but] You are not doing anything ”
Meta rejected claims that it had “invested in security and safety measures” along with “measures to curb the spread of misinformation” in response to hate speech and hate speech.
One of the issues that families believe is spreading Facebook hatred is the murder of Gebremichael Tewoldedhin, a Tigrayan jeweler who was abducted three months ago in Gondar, Amhara Region.
Relatives who say you were born into a non-political family have played a key role in the online hate campaign and calls – especially on Facebook – for the alleged murder and many others.
“They are the ones who have been spreading hate speech on social media claiming to be the main contributors to their killings,” he said, requesting anonymity.
He said some posts mention individuals’ names and even post photos that help create an atmosphere of “violence, murder and displacement”.
He also told his family that he had been killed and buried in a mass grave while his nephew was trying to stop the looters.
Solomon Bogalen, an online activist with more than 86,000 Facebook followers, mentions the families of your birth, especially Facebook user Solomon Bogalen.
Although it is rumored to be based in London, Bogale has been in Ethiopia since August 2021, often reading articles praising the Amhara nationalist Qero group and claiming to be armed with ammunition.
One of Bogale’s “Interesting Articles” by a member of Tewoldemedhin’s family believed that Gondar had been attacked by Tigrayans. In the weeks leading up to Tewoldemedhin’s assassination, Bogale called on the Amhara territories to clear Junta. This term was used by government supporters to refer to the Tigrayan forces and the Tigrayans in general.
The article goes on to say, “We must clear the pre-war Junta lineage territory !!”
According to TBIJ, the post could be found on Facebook after four months, although Meta said it has since “removed content that violates our guidelines.”
In a Facebook post, Bogale denied that any Tigrayans had been killed in Gondar in early November and denied that all Tigrayans in the town were safe. Bogale says he will delete the articles published by TBG.
Less than a month after the birth of your son, Hadush Gebre-Christos, a 45-year-old resident of Addis Ababa, was arrested by police.
The body was found two days later, on November 26, near a police station.
A relative said Gebre Christos had no political affiliation, but believed that false information posted on Facebook had played a key role in the assassination.
“People do not have the ability to filter Facebook posts. Calling people to kill Tigrinya-speaking residents. ”
To make matters worse, Meta said in a statement to the US Congress that Meta had been aware of such concerns for years.
A.D. An internal report on “Bad on FB” in January 2019 – a measure of harmful content on the platform – described the situation in Ethiopia as “severe” and the second highest category.
About a year later, Ethiopia tops the list of Facebook countries to take action.
The presentation on December 10, 2020, described the threat of civil war in Ethiopia as “scary” – a Meta high risk warning and the only country that has achieved this level.
For more than a year, the organization has repeatedly ignored requests from data editors in the country. Some civil society organizations say they have not been in contact with the company for 18 months. Several sources told the bureau that Facebook appointed the first senior policy executive from Ethiopia to work in East Africa in September.
Meta runs a third-party fact-finding program, accessing internal tools for partners, and paying for fact-finding. However, it did not work with an Ethiopian organization to address misinformation about the country’s conflict.
Fact Check founder Abel Wabela Meta spoke to executives for the first time a year ago but said he could not support their organization.
The other major independent fact-finding organization based in Ethiopia is not part of the Facebook Partner program.
Instead, Facebook works with two fact-finding companies from Ethiopia – Pesachék and Agence France-Presse, a Nairobi-based small group – but both are out of the country.
Although misinformation presented by Pesachék and AFP has often been labeled as fake or removed by Facebook, content deleted by HaqCheck remains largely unchanged and free to disseminate.
This includes the declaration of false military victories on both sides, the attacks on civilians and the false claims of captured infiltrators.
“As far as I know, there is almost no Facebook support for fake checks in Ethiopia,” a senior Ethiopian media official said on condition of anonymity.
“Facebook has not given Ethiopia the attention it needs at this crucial time, and this is contributing to the crisis by inciting hatred and spreading hate speech.”
Many civil society groups have similar grievances that they feel neglected and marginalized. In June 2020, Facebook convened a meeting with several groups to discuss how Medrek could better control its content ahead of the planned election. A.D. Since November, two of the participating organizations have said they have not heard of any further meetings.
“There is really no excuse,” said Haben Fekadu, a human rights activist working in Ethiopia. I doubt they have invested enough in their discussion of African content.
“We have invested more than two years in Ethiopia’s security and safety measures, adding more knowledgeable staff in the area and building our capacity to deal with hate speech,” said Mercy Ndega, director of public policy for Meta East and Horn of Africa. Content of languages.
“As the situation worsens, we have taken further steps and we continue to monitor the movement on the platform, identify problems and quickly remove content that violates our rules.”
The company added that it has worked with 80 partners in testing languages in more than 60 languages to evaluate content on Facebook, including Pesa Check and AFP.
More Report Kat Hall and Zechariah Forever