Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has made it known that the social media giant was used to escalate violence in Ethiopia.
Haugen testified before a US Senate subcommittee where she stated that the company could be used dangerously if action isn’t taken.
Facebook was blamed back in 2019 over the spread of violence in the East-African country after an Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed accused the government of endangering his life which led to a nationwide protest in the country.
Social media was said to be an avenue of misinformation that further spiraled the violence according to Ethiopian running legend Haile Gebrselassie in a statement to the BBC. “fake news is easy to spread”.
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Facebook says it has a policy of “working to fight the spread of false news”.
But Haugen wasn’t buying it when she further gave instances of Myanmar where Facebook admitted to not doing enough to halt the spread of hate posts on its platform.
“My fear is that without action, divisive and extremist behaviors we see today are only the beginning,” she said.
Haugen who was a former employee at Facebook said she had copied internal memos and documents that were leaked to the Wall Street Journal all of which incriminates the social media giant of chasing after money over its users’ safety.
Facebook on the other hand has stood its ground stating that many of the allegations were blatant falsehoods.
