NewsTracker Answers for week of Apr 07, 2025

Q: A $2.4 billion lawsuit accusing Facebook owner Meta of inciting violence during Ethiopia’s 2020-22 civil war may proceed, ruled the high court in neighboring Kenya. Where is Ethiopia, a landlocked country on the Horn of Africa?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The lawsuit in Kenya was brought two Ethiopians seeking changes by Facebook and a $2.4 billion “restitution fund” for victims of hate and violence. Kenya is ...

A. North of Ethiopia

B. East of Ethiopia

C. South of Ethiopia

D. West of Ethiopia


C. Ethiopia is bordered by Kenya to the south, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, Eritrea and Djibouti to the north and Somalia to the east. The lawsuit seeks Facebook to change its algorithm hire hire more content moderators in Africa. The court ruled it had jurisdiction, in part, because Facebook moderators had been based in Kenya.


Q: The lawsuit was brought by the son of a murdered Ethiopian professor and an Amnesty International researcher who was threatened with death on Facebook. In 2022, Amnesty International accused Facebook of inflaming ethnic violence in what Southeast Asian nation?

A. Afghanistan

B. Bhutan

C. Japan

D. Myanmar


D. Amnesty claimed Facebook’s algorithms “proactively amplified” hate speech against Myanmar’s Rohingya ethnic group, which was subject to a campaign of rampant killings, rape and arson targeting the predominantly Muslim minority.


Q: Facebook used algorithms that increased divisive news and content to entice users to stay online so the company could make more money from advertising, according to former employee Frances Haugen. Where did she testify about Facebook’s practices in 2021?

A. British Parliament

B. European Parliament

C. US Congress

D. All of the above


D. Haugen also cited Ethiopia in 2021 as an example of a country where violence had been “amplified by social media.” Facebook said there was no evidence that it or social media was “the primary cause of polarization.” Meta recently fired fact-checkers and loosened its rules on hate speech about sexual orientation and immigration status.


Q: Papua New Guinea shut down Facebook for one day last week as a "test" to mitigate hate speech, misinformation, pornography and "other detrimental content."  What is Papua New Guinea’s nearest neighbor?

A. Australia

B. Indonesia

C. Malaysia

D. Philippines


B. Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern half of the world’s second largest island and shares a land border with Indonesia which occupies the western half. The island of New Guinea is separated from Australia by a 91-mile strait. Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia in 1975.