Facebook fails to detect hate speech in Kenya ahead of elections

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The Kenyan national cohesion watchdog threatened Friday to suspend Facebook from the country if the big tech firm does not mitigate hate speech ahead of Kenya's general elections next month.

The regulator has given a deadline of one week to redress the issue, which included Facebook's approval of ads that advocate ethnic cleansing. The Facebook whistleblower and human rights organizations are demanding Facebook immediately suspend all ads in Kenya and take other emergency measures.

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) - a Kenyan agency established to reduce ethnic violence and promote national healing as a consequence of the 2007-2008 post-election crisis - told reporters on Friday that Facebook was "in violation of the laws of our country."

"They have allowed themselves to be a vector of hate speech and incitement, misinformation and disinformation," Danvas Makori, an NCIC commissioner stated during a briefing.

Last week, Facebook issued a press release in which it claimed to have eliminated harmful content in Kenya and praised itself for the many ways it was addressing problematic content. However, just after the statement, the company approved ads run in both languages, English and Swahili, created specifically to stir ethnic violence in Kenya, according to human rights groups.

"If Mark Zuckerberg chooses to sit on his hands, it will make it clear that for him, and for Facebook, American lives matter — Kenyan lives don't," said Cori Crider, a lawyer, investigator, and co-founder of a new non-profit, Foxglove.

In a statement, Global Witness said that it chose deliberately not to use the exact language used in the tests conducted on Facebook, but described the ads as "dehumanizing, comparing specific tribal groups to animals and calling for rape, slaughter, and beheading."

Meta, Facebook's parent company, claims to use a "combination of artificial intelligence, human review and user reports" to tackle harmful content and said that it's partnered with civil society organizations, "to ensure a safer experience across our technologies."

Following Meta's statement, Global Witness said it submitted more ads to see if Facebook had actually rolled out improvements that would better detect hate speech in ads, but Facebook failed those tests.

"Once again the ads we resubmitted in Swahili and English were approved," Global Witness said.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen echoed Global Witness and Foxglove's calls to suspend all advertising in Kenya, stressing the safety of the Kenyan election" and adding that "after January 6, Facebook staff took urgent steps to restrict the most dangerous features on the platform, reducing violence and hate on the platform."

"They have also previously suspended ads. Given we now have evidence Facebook did not invest in basic Ads safety measures in Kenya - Facebook should suspend ads until the Election at a minimum," the statement read.

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General elections to elect a new president in Kenya and members of its National Assembly are scheduled to take place on August 9, 2022.