Meta Action Against Meta: Kenya Hosts Lawsuits Against Big Tech With Global Implications
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Meta Action Against Meta: Kenya Hosts Lawsuits Against Big Tech With Global Implications
KENYA
In April, the European Union fined Meta and Apple almost $800 million collectively for antitrust violations, and added requirements that they change their business practices.
These were only the latest European actions against American “Big Tech” companies for privacy violations, intellectual property infringements, anti-competitive practices, and other actions that the bloc deemed violated its rules over the past decade.
The EU has long been at the forefront of governments and regulators worldwide attempting to change how Meta, Google, Apple, and others do business.
However, it’s three cases in Africa that promise to have even broader consequences for US tech firms, analysts say.
“(These cases) could serve as a model for similar plaintiffs from the global majority to seek some modicum of accountability from one of the most consequential companies of the last two decades,” wrote Compiler, a non-profit that covers digital policy.
One case centers on the death of an Ethiopian chemistry professor, Meareg Amare Abrha, who was the subject of Facebook posts that included his name, photo, and workplace, along with false allegations against him: He was accused of being involved in violence against other ethnic groups as a sectarian civil war raged in Ethiopia in the fall of 2021.
His son, Abrham Meareg, panicked after seeing the posts, worried that the combination of the accusations and the ethnicity of his father, a member of the Tigrayan minority, would cause him to be attacked.
“I knew it was a death sentence for my father the moment I saw it,” Abrham Meareg told NPR.
He repeatedly requested the platform take down the posts. But the company “left these posts up until it was far too late,” he told the BBC. His father was murdered by armed men on motorcycles just weeks later. Some of the posts were removed after his father’s death. Others remained on the site for as long as a year later.
The lawsuit against Meta, filed by Abrham Meareg and two other parties, is asking for $2 billion for a victim’s restitution fund, changes to Facebook’s algorithm, and an apology. The case, filed in Kenya because that’s where the content moderators for Ethiopia were based, alleges that Facebook’s algorithms amplified hate speech that spread hate and violence during the Ethiopian civil war and also led to real-world consequences – such as the murder of Meareg Amare Abrha.
Initially, Meta disputed that it could be held liable in legal action in Kenya since its headquarters are in the United States – an argument it had sometimes used successfully in Europe, until the bloc required the physical presence of American tech companies operating within it.
Meanwhile, liability claims for content posted on tech platforms are rarely successful in the US or anywhere else.
Still, in April, Kenya’s High Court ruled it had jurisdiction to hear the cases.
“(The) ruling is a positive step towards holding big tech companies accountable for contributing to human rights abuses,” said Mandi Mudarikwa, who is in charge of strategic litigation at Amnesty International, which is among the human rights organizations supporting the case. “It paves the way for justice and serves notice to big tech platforms that the era of impunity is over.”
When the case was initially filed, a Meta official told the BBC that hate speech and incitement to violence were against the platform’s rules, saying, “Our safety-and-integrity work in Ethiopia is guided by feedback from local civil society organizations and international institutions.”
Meta says that it will appeal the ruling on jurisdiction in Kenya’s Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, all three Kenya cases center on the tens of thousands of moderators the firm uses overseas to monitor and remove illegal content.
In Kenya, like elsewhere, Meta had hired a third-party contractor, Sama, to perform content moderation in local languages. This is cheaper than incorporating overseas and hiring employees, which subjects the firm to local laws. Firms like Meta had also believed it allowed them to evade liability because it had offloaded the work, analysts said.
In the second of the three cases, a class-action suit, 184 former content moderators say that the contractors hired by Meta, and also Meta itself, were guilty of unlawful termination and forced labor, according to their attorney, Mercy Mutemi, who is also representing plaintiffs in the other cases. In the third, workers accuse Meta and the subcontractors of mental harm, alleging they were forced to watch graphic images without access to mental health professionals and were terminated after they tried to unionize to obtain care.
Meta has said it has no liability because it had no direct relationship with the workers, a claim that a judge in Kenya ruled against, calling Meta the workers’ “employer.”
As the cases continue to be litigated, observers say they are also remarkable because they are the first in Africa or anywhere in the Global South to attempt to hold American big tech firms accountable for their practices.
Moreover, how these cases are decided and what comes after could have global implications for Meta and other multinationals, especially tech companies, analysts say: That they can be held liable for content; that they can be sued anywhere; and that they can be held liable for work performed by subcontractors.
“Kenya has become a key legal battlefield in the campaign to hold Meta accountable,” said Paul Barrett of New York University’s School of Law, writing in Tech Policy Press. “Meta continues to deny legal or moral liability in the innovative Kenyan case. But together with two other lawsuits pending against Meta in Nairobi, the Kenyan litigation provides an unusual opportunity to consider the obligations that powerful technology companies have to the populations that make their mighty profits possible.”
Others point out that beyond the courts, Kenyans and other Africans have additional leverage with multinationals. Africa is the youngest continent demographically – 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africa is under the age of 30 – which makes it an important market for American tech companies in the future, analysts say.
But these cases are advancing even as American tech companies like Meta are moving toward eliminating content moderation completely, reversing a decade-long trend.
Meta, for example, in a January memo said it would eliminate its third-party fact-checking program in the United States this year to “restore free expression,” and instead follow a model used by X, which it called Community Notes.
“Meta’s platforms are built to be places where people can express themselves freely,” wrote its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. “That can be messy. But that’s free expression.”
“In recent years, we’ve developed increasingly complex systems to manage content across our platforms, partly in response to societal and political pressure to moderate content,” he added. “This approach has gone too far.”
American tech titans have also been lobbying US President Donald Trump to fight governments overseas that are taking action against Big Tech, something he has signaled that he is willing to do.
“We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more,” Zuckerberg said.
The lure of jobs and economic growth can sometimes help multinationals avoid such legal cases.
For example, Kenyan President William Ruto is trying to make Kenya into a continental tech hub to promote employment and economic growth. It therefore came as a blow when Meta moved its content-moderation operations from Kenya to Ghana after the lawsuits were filed. (However, Ghana’s content moderators recently filed suit against Meta for mental harm, too).
Now Ruto has backed a new law to make it harder to sue American tech companies because he says the country needs jobs for its young people – currently, about 31 percent of Kenyan youth are unemployed or underemployed, according to the government.
“(This bill would) make us more attractive for investment,” said Aaron Cheruiyot, the Kenyan Senate majority leader, on X. “(Tech is) a growing sector that currently employs thousands with the potential to explode and employ millions. Is it not in the best interest of the ever-growing number of unemployed youth to make do what needs to be done to open up more opportunities for them?”
Essentially, Kenya’s government is facing an impossible choice, Mark Graham of the Oxford Internet Institute told the Economist: “Bad jobs or no jobs.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Germany’s Merz Bounces Back to Secure Majority in Chancellor Vote
GERMANY
Friedrich Merz of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will be sworn in as Germany’s next chancellor after bouncing back from a historic defeat early Tuesday to secure a majority in the second round of parliamentary voting, the Associated Press reported.
Merz needed only 316 votes out of 630 in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house, for the win, and the CDU and its two coalition partners, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) hold 328 seats. But Merz only received 310 votes in the first ballot, explained Politico, marking the first time since the end of World War Two that a candidate for chancellor failed to win on the first ballot after successful coalition talks.
He garnered 325 votes in the second round, and will be sworn in as chancellor by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. But the reasons for the flip-flop may never be clear because the vote is done by secret ballot, and analysts suggested that the first-round loss remains a major humiliation. One possibility is that members of the SPD initially voted against him to express displeasure over the coalition deal signed Monday.
Germany’s new Europe Minister, Gunther Krichbaum, told the BBC that some members of the SPD had admitted they were not fully convinced by Merz. However, SPD officials insisted the party was fully committed to the coalition agreement.
If Merz had lost again in the second round, by German law, the lower house of parliament would have had 14 days to elect a candidate with an absolute majority. While Merz could have run as many times as he wanted, others could also have entered the race, and an unlimited number of votes could have taken place in the following two weeks.
If nobody secured a majority in the 14 days, the president could have appointed the candidate with the most votes or dissolved the Bundestag and called for new elections.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) – which came in second in the February election and is expected to become the main opposition party in parliament – took Merz’s initial failure as an opportunity to call for new elections, saying that the CDU and SPD coalition was built on shaky grounds.
Merz has presented himself as a strong European leader after years of weak government under outgoing German Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose administration collapsed last year.
Germany is Europe’s largest economy and a diplomatic heavyweight.
The new chancellor will be faced with international challenges, such as the war in Ukraine and the US trade war, but also domestic issues, including the rise of the far-right and a stagnating economy, wrote the Washington Post.
RSF Drone Strikes Hit Port Sudan in Major Escalation of Civil War
SUDAN
Drone strikes carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued to hit the state military stronghold of Port Sudan for the fourth consecutive day Wednesday, marking a major escalation in the country’s ongoing civil war, the Washington Post reported.
Port Sudan, which serves as an interim seat for Sudan’s military-allied government, is home to about 600,000 people – the majority of whom have been displaced since the conflict began in April 2023 – prompting concerns about civilian casualties, Al Jazeera noted.
Recent strikes this week have targeted vital infrastructure in the eastern city, which had remained untouched by the fighting until Sunday.
The RSF attacks destroyed fuel depots and sparked citywide power outages after hitting the main electricity substation. Flights in and out of Port Sudan’s airport, which serves as a critical hub for humanitarian operations, were suspended.
On Wednesday, the Sudanese Armed Forces reportedly repelled a drone attack on Port Sudan’s Flamingo naval base – the country’s largest, according to Agence France-Presse.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates swiftly condemned the strikes, although the UAE is alleged to be supporting the RSF.
Sudanese Information Minister Khaled al-Aiser accused the UAE of arming the RSF, calling the strikes a “criminal and terrorist attack.”
Observers noted that the fighting in Port Sudan marks a new phase in a conflict that erupted two years ago between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) over control of the country’s political transition to a functioning democracy.
Analyst Alan Boswell told the Post that the RSF’s strategy is to destabilize the east of the country after losing the capital Khartoum in March. He explained that the offensive could “deepen regional tensions.”
“These attacks cross a red line for Saudi Arabia and Egypt, bringing the war to their Red Sea doorsteps with drone technologies usually beyond the reach of a non-state actor like the RSF,” he added.
The war has displaced more than 12 million people and pushed half of Sudan’s population into acute hunger. The United Nations has called it the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice on Monday said it could not rule on Sudan’s case accusing the UAE of fueling genocide in the Darfur region by arming the RSF, because it lacks the necessary jurisdiction, Reuters added.
Though the court specified that it could not speak as to the merits of the case, the UAE welcomed the ruling as a legal vindication, while Sudan vowed to continue trying to hold the Gulf nation accountable.
Peru Imposes Curfew and Suspends Mining After 13 Miners Murdered
PERU
The Peruvian government imposed a nighttime curfew in the northwestern province of Pataz following the murder of 13 kidnapped miners, the BBC reported.
As Latin America’s biggest producer of gold, Peru has faced an upswell of illegal mining as well as racketeering and contract killings since the price of the precious metal topped $3,500 an ounce.
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte ordered the suspension of mining activities for a month as additional police and soldiers were deployed in the region. Critics have condemned the government’s response as late and inefficient, according to the Guardian.
La Poderosa, the Peruvian company that owns the gold mines where the murdered miners worked, said they had been kidnapped by “illegal miners colluding with criminals” on April 26.
Forensic evidence suggests the men were shot more than a week before their bodies were found.
The victims worked for a subcontractor, R&R, which operated at La Poderosa’s mine. They were sent to face a group that had taken control of the mine but were ambushed and kidnapped as they sought to take it back.
The captors shared videos of the 13 men in a mine shaft, tied up and naked, in an attempt to extort ransom money. The footage caused outrage in Peru.
Pataz is embroiled in a struggle over mining pits, with illegal miners and criminals clashing with legal miners. Illegal mining is the most lucrative criminal activity in Peru, accounting for $9 billion between 2014 and 2024.
La Poderosa said a total of 39 people linked to the company had been killed by criminal gangs in Pataz despite a large police presence and the state of emergency enacted in February 2024.
Last year, thousands of small-scale gold miners blocked highways and camped outside congress, asking the government to keep a registry, known as REINFO, of informal and illegal gold miners that would protect them from prosecution while they formalize their activities.
DISCOVERIES
Moving Day
With a chalk-white face and bright orange and red splayed on its black body, the white-faced darter dragonfly is a sight when it flutters across England.
However, these creatures face the risk of extinction because their peatland habitat is being destroyed by intensive agriculture, drainage of the wetland, and climate change – the hotter, drier summers are drying out their bog pool breeding sites.
Conservationists are coming to the rescue, translocating a population of white-faced darters to remote Cumbria and recreating the woodlands and mossy pools they roost and feed in, explained the Guardian.
“This is an exciting opportunity to boost biodiversity in this beautiful and hidden corner of Cumbria, helping to create a new population of this charming but endangered species,” said Mhairi Maclauchlan, a manager at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ reserve at Campfield Marsh, in a press release. “It’s incredibly rewarding to know we have created the right conditions for white-faced darter.”
To create the new population, conservationists are collecting sphagnum moss containing dragonfly larvae from the acidic pools where the dragonflies breed and bringing it to the South Solway Mosses national nature reserve.
If the transportation of the dragonflies this year is successful, Maclauchlan said that they could see adults next spring, and hopefully, the area will come alive with white-faced darters in the future.
Reintroductions will take place in April and August and will be repeated for five years to establish a stable dragonfly population.
“Unfortunately, due to habitat loss and climate change, the species cannot be reintroduced to its more southerly historic breeding sites in England,” said Eleanor Colver, the British Dragonfly Society’s conservation officer, in the press release. “However, the cooler climate of the Solway coast and the healthy peat bog of Campfield Marsh provide perfect conditions for the species to thrive.”