Facebook faces suspension in Kenya over ethnic-based hate speech
detailing how Facebook approved ads written to instigate ethnic violence in both English and Swahili.
The organizations joined forces to conduct a study testing Facebook's ability to detect hate speech and calls for ethnic-based violence ahead of the Kenyan elections. As Global Witness explained in its report, the country's politics are polarized and ethnically driven — after the 2007 elections, for instance, 1,300 people were killed and hundreds of thousands more had to flee their homes.
The groups decided not to publish the exact ads they submitted for the test because they were highly offensive, but they used real-life examples of hate speech commonly used in Kenya. They include comparisons of specific tribal groups to animals and calls for their members' rape, slaughter and beheading."Much to our surprise and concern," Global Witness reported,"all hate speech examples in both [English and Swahili] were approved.
After the organizations asked Facebook for a comment regarding what it had discovered and hence made it aware of the study, Metaa post that details how it is preparing for Kenya's election. In it, the company said it has built a more advanced content detection technology and has hired dedicated teams of Swahili speakers to help it"remove harmful content quickly and at scale.
Global Witness said its study's findings follow a similar pattern it previously uncovered in Myanmar, where Facebook played a role in