Meta has been accused in the suit of allowing posts inciting war in Tigray to thrive on Facebook after an Observer investigation in February found a repeated failure to act against posts that encouraged violence.
The suit, filed in Kenya’s highest court, where Metas operations in Sub-Saharan Africa are based, argues Facebook’s recommendations system amplified hateful, violent posts in the context of the war in northern Ethiopia, which had been raging for two years before an agreement to end hostilities was agreed to in early November.
The suit calls for establishing a $1.6bn fund to compensate victims of hate speech.