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Cyber bullying victims in Sh300 billion mega suit against Facebook

Upon depositing the funds, the petitioners want the court to quantify the damages suffered by each victim of Facebook's social media abuse for appropriate payments.

In addition, they want the company ordered to deposit another Sh50 billion as compensation for any Facebook User in Kenya who has been shown a boosted or sponsored post containing content that constitutes inciteful, hateful and dangerous speech.

"We are also seeking an order for the company to issue an apology on its website, blog, its CEO's Facebook account and all other of its official channels with international reach for allowing inciteful, hateful and dangerous content to be shared on its platform," said Mutemi.

According to the company, Meta has allowed posts that amount to doxing to be published on Facebook and availed such posts to users in Kenya and other African countries which violates their right to protection and not to be subjected to psychological torture.

Mutemi argued that the company's algorithm recommends content that amounts to propaganda for war, hate speech, incitement to violence and advocacy of hatred to Facebook users in Kenya thereby violating their right to dignity.

"Failure by the company to take down content that amounts to propaganda for war, hate speech, incitement to violence and advocacy of hatred has led to the loss of lives thereby violating the right to life as guaranteed by the Constitution," she said.

Although the company's Community Standards provide that offensive content be pulled down, she said they have done nothing in enforcing the regulations thereby putting the lives of thousands of people at risk.

The petition was supported by two Ethiopian victims of social media abuse, Abrham Meareg and Fisseha Tekle who works as legal adviser at Amnesty International in Nairobi.

Meareg in his affidavit swore that he was forced to seek asylum in the US following the war in Tigray region in Ethiopia and that his father Prof Meareg Amare Abrha who was a university professor at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia was killed due to posts on Facebook.

"My father was not actively involved in politics nor in the conflict that has plagued Ethiopia but because of Facebook posts implicating him in the war, he was tracked down by military personnel and killed outside our gate," swore Meareg.

According to Meareg, a Facebook page named 'BDU Staff', with 35,000 likes and 50,000 followers posted a picture of his father claiming that since he was a Tigrayan, he supported the war against the government.

He claimed that the posts gained so many hateful and inciting comments calling for people to harm his father.

"They were posted at a time when the war between the government and the Tigray's People Liberation Front was ongoing and there was increased targeting of Tigrayans. Identifying him as a Tigrayan, and falsely associating him with the war cost his life," he swore.

Meareg stated that after seeing the hateful comments that put his father's life at risk, he complained to Facebook to pull them down but nothing happened until he was trailed and shot dead on November 3, 2021.