Meta faces £1.8bn lawsuit over claims it inflamed violence in Ethiopia (www.theguardian.com)
from HowRu68@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 04 Apr 01:58
https://lemmy.world/post/27759766

Meta faces a $2.4bn (£1.8bn) lawsuit accusing the Facebook owner of inflaming violence in Ethiopia after the Kenyan high court said a legal case against the US tech group could go ahead.

The case brought by two Ethiopian nationals calls on Facebook to alter its algorithm to stop promoting hateful material and incitement to violence, as well as hiring more content moderators in Africa. It is also seeking a $2.4bn “restitution fund” for victims of hate and violence incited on Facebook.

#world

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non_burglar@lemmy.world on 04 Apr 02:34 next collapse

And to think people hailed Facebook and other online services so much in the Arab Spring of 2010 that someone in Egypt named their kid Facebook.

“Power corrupts” seems to be universal with humans.

ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world on 04 Apr 06:53 collapse

They saw how people used it during the Arab Spring, and thought “what if we used it to overthrow our democracies and install people doing our biddings?”.

(Can someone check Curtis Yarvin’s public writings if he ever done so?)

A_norny_mousse@feddit.org on 04 Apr 03:01 next collapse

I hope the lawsuits start raining in from everywhere, and not just against Meta.

one_fot_mon@lemm.ee on 04 Apr 04:10 next collapse

I hope this pressure leads to just getting rid of algorithms altogether. It’s like intentionally giving everyone their own personal echo chamber. How are people ever going to be open to different ideas if they’re constantly being pigeonholed by their browsing behaviour? How will they ever have opportunities for practicing critical thinking if everything is spoonfed to them? How many real human beings have we unintentionally ignored online because an algorithm decided they weren’t interesting enough to us? These are all things that have the potential to prevent a tragedy. Humans are capable of being more than the sum of their clicks if we let them.

The world is bigger than our own interests and I think it deserves even just a crumb of our attention too. Then maybe the world can become a little less devastating.

TheTechnician27@lemmy.world on 04 Apr 05:08 next collapse

I hope this pressure leads to just getting rid of algorithms altogether.

And other things spoken by someone who never learned what an algorithm is.

lumony@lemmings.world on 04 Apr 09:20 collapse

You don’t need algorithms to have an echo chamber.

Just look at the mod abuse that goes on on some of these forums.

FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world on 04 Apr 13:07 collapse

Which, of course, it 100% did. That’s what it’s designed to do.