Meta has lost another legal battle in Kenya as a court in the East African country ruled against Meta in a lawsuit where two Ethiopians accused the social media giant of failing to moderate inciteful messages on its platform.Â
Last December, one Abrham Meareg sued Meta in Kenya for the death of his father which occurred amidst the two-year Ethiopian war from 2020–2022. According to the plaintiff, his father was killed after his Facebook account was profiled and he was accused of associating with the rebel group, the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF).
Meareg and his co-petitioner, a legal advisor at Amnesty International, asked the court permission to serve Meta a lawsuit outside Kenya. Yesterday, the court granted the permission.
It’s still a long way to victory, but the lawsuit wants the court to force Meta to create a Ksh250 billion ($1.8 billion) fund that will be used to compensate victims of hate crimes fuelled on all Meta platforms.
This is the second legal battle Meta has lost in Kenya this month. Just last week, a Kenyan High Court issued an order prohibiting Meta from using any third-party content moderator company other than Sama to examine its platform’s content. In the same lawsuit, it was also decided that Kenyan courts have the jurisdiction to determine petitions against Meta.
