'We need to kill them': Xenophobic hate speech approved by Facebook, TikTok and YouTube (South Africa)
Violent xenophobic test ads were approved by all three platforms; nearly every ad passed, with only one Facebook rejection.
Executive summary
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Global Witness, working with the South African public interest law firm Legal Resources Centre, tested Facebook, TikTok and YouTube's ad-review systems by submitting ten violently xenophobic advertisements in English and Afrikaans, with nine also translated into Xhosa and Zulu. The ads, based on real examples of anti-migrant rhetoric, called for police to kill foreigners, described non-South Africans as a "disease," and urged the use of force against migrants; all were withdrawn before any could be published.
Every one of the ads was approved by all three platforms, with a single exception: Facebook rejected one ad in its English and Afrikaans versions but approved the same ad in Xhosa and Zulu, suggesting weaker moderation coverage for African-language content. The investigation was published around World Refugee Day, amid UN warnings that South Africa was at risk of severe xenophobic violence.
In response, Meta and TikTok acknowledged the content violated their policies but said their detection systems are imperfect and ads pass through several layers of review before publication.
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