Earlier this year, it was reported that hate speech on Facebook ultimately led to the murder of a professor belonging to an ethnic minority group in Ethiopia. Now, an anonymous Facebook Trusted Partner has come out to say that they reported the speech in the days and weeks leading up to the murder but were ignored.

These Trusted Partners are usually individuals with local or linguistic expertise who help Facebook detect threats around the world. However, in this case, the partner was brushed off and told that the social media giant shouldn’t be the “arbiter of the truth.” For its part, Facebook has tried to defend its slow response.

“We aim to review content reported to us by Trusted Partners as quickly as we can,” a Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider. “The amount of time it takes us to review content can depend on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, the complexity, volume of content and the format in which it is shared.”

However, some experts have flatly rejected Facebook’s rationale, pointing out that a delay of any kind removing this speech can lead to unimaginable consequences.

“To take several months to review and take down consequential hate speech is to allow it to cause violence until it’s dealt with,” a member of the Network Against Hate Speech said.

It’s also worth noting that the family of the murdered man has filed a gigantic lawsuit against Facebook. So no matter how much the company wants this story to go away, it could be facing a big financial consequence for its inaction here.

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