In October 2021, at the height of the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia, an anonymous Facebook account accused Abrham Meareg’s father of supporting and funding the Tigray rebel forces.
Meareg says these claims were false. But that didn’t stop the mounting death threats on the social media site, some of which were posted publicly and received thousands of likes.
Less than a month later, Meareg’s father was shot dead outside his home as he returned from work. A judge in Kenya has now given his family the go-ahead to sue Meta, Facebook’s parent company, for failing to stop the online abuse and calls for his murder. This is a historic first legal attempt at accountability against Meta in an African court. Before now the company has avoided legal action on the continent on the premise that it is registered abroad and in the U.S. and as such African courts have no jurisdiction over it.
