Association of Tigrayan Communities in Canada

Facebook knew it was being used to incite violence in Ethiopia. It did little to stop the spread, documents show

By Eliza Mackintosh, CNN

Updated 11:25 AM ET, Mon October 25, 2021

Mekelle, the regional capital of Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, seen through a broken window in the Ayder Referral Hospital in May.

 
Mekelle, the regional capital of Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, seen through a broken window in the Ayder Referral Hospital in May.

London (CNN)Facebook employees repeatedly sounded the alarm on the company’s failure to curb the spread of posts inciting violence in “at risk” countries like Ethiopia, where a civil war has raged for the past year, internal documents seen by CNN show.

The social media giant ranks Ethiopia in its highest priority tier for countries at risk of conflict, but the documents reveal that Facebook’s moderation efforts were no match for the flood of inflammatory content on its platform.