Kenya Issues Facebook Suspension Ultimatum Over Hatespeech

Kenya's ethnic cohesion watchdog has given Meta Platforms-owned Facebook, seven days to tackle hate speech and incitement on the platform relating to next month's election, failing which its operations will be suspended.

East Africa's biggest economy is in the throes of campaigning ahead of it's presidential, legislative and local authorities elections on August 9.

According to a report published by Advocacy group Global Witness, Facebook had accepted and carried more than a dozen political advertisements that breached Kenya's rules.

Kenya's National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) said the report corroborates its own internal findings.

"Facebook is in violation of the laws of our country. They have allowed themselves to be a vector of hate speech and incitement, misinformation and disinformation," Danvas Makori, an NCIC commissioner said. 

Meta has taken "extensive steps" to weed out hate speech and inflammatory content, and it is intensifying those efforts ahead of the election, a company spokesperson told Reuters.

(Source: Reuters)