The Oversight Board, a group Facebook created to review its policy decisions, weighed in on a case of misinformation in war-torn Ethiopia Tuesday, warning the company about the risks of allowing hate speech and unverified information to spread freely in conflict zones.
The Oversight Board reviewed a post in Amharic from an Ethiopia-based Facebook user that claimed the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was responsible for murder, rape and looting in Raya Kobo and other population centers in the country’s Amhara region, aided by Tigrayan civilians.
“While the user claims his sources are previous unnamed reports and people on-the-ground, he does not even provide circumstantial evidence to support his allegations,” the Oversight Board wrote in its evaluation.
“Rumors alleging that an ethnic group is complicit in mass atroci …
