Facebook accused of fomenting Ethiopian violence

An American whistle-blower who previously worked for Facebook has claimed that its lack of controls over harmful content is promoting ethnic violence in Ethiopia. Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager who was part of a ‘civic integrity’ team studying and proposing solutions to combat harmful practices on the site, gave evidence last week to the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security of the US Senate. ‘My fear is that without action, divisive and extremist behaviours we see today are only the beginning. What we saw in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and are now seeing in Ethiopia are only the opening chapters of a story so terrifying no one wants to read the end of it,’ she said. A report on the allAfrica site notes that Haugen's appearance at the hearing followed coverage by The Wall Street Journal of internal Facebook documents showing that employees have been alarmed at how the site is being used in developing countries. Haugen said 87% of ‘integrity funding’ – the money Facebook spends on combatting misinformation – is spent on content in English, despite only9% of Facebook users being English speakers. In Ethiopia, ‘integrity systems’ were used for only two of six languages used. ‘It seems that Facebook invests more in users who make more money, even though the danger may not be evenly distributed,’ she added.