Hate speech in Myanmar thrives on social media

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

Internal papers obtained by The Associated Press show that, years after being criticised for contributing to ethnic and religious bloodshed in Myanmar, Facebook is still having trouble recognising and regulating hate speech and misinformation on its platform in the Southeast Asian country.

The firm commissioned an investigation three years ago that indicated Facebook was being used in the country to "foment discord and instigate offline violence."
It promised to do better and created a number of tools and regulations to combat hate speech.

 

Since the military takeover on Feb. 1 this year, which resulted in horrible human rights atrocities across the country, the vulnerabilities have persisted — and even been exploited by hostile actors.

It's not difficult to discover remarks on Facebook now threatening death and rape in Myanmar.

Over 56,000 people have viewed a 2-and-a-half-minute film produced on Oct. 24 by a military supporter asking for violence against opposition groups.

"So, from now on, we are the gods of death for all (of them)," the man says in Burmese as he stares into the camera.
"Come back tomorrow and we'll see if you're real men or gays," says the narrator.

 

A military defector's home address and a photo of his wife are posted on one account.
A photo showing troops leading bound and blindfolded prisoners down a dirt path was posted on Oct. 29.
"Don't catch them alive," says the Burmese caption.

Despite the ongoing challenges, Facebook regarded Myanmar as a model to transmit around the world as well as a developing and thorny case.
According to documents obtained by the Associated Press, Myanmar served as a test bed for new content moderation technology, with Facebook attempting to automate the identification of hate speech and misinformation with different degrees of success.

 

Former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen's legal counsel revealed Facebook's internal conversations on Myanmar in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which were redacted and handed to Congress.
A group of news organisations, including The Associated Press, obtained the redacted copies that Congress received.

 

Around 2013, it also became "a hub for extremism," according to Htaike Htaike Aung, a Myanmar internet policy advocate, coinciding with religious disturbances across Myanmar between Buddhists and Muslims.
It's unclear how much, if any, human or automated content monitoring took place at the time.

Htaike Htaike Aung said she met with Facebook that year to discuss issues such as how local organisations were experiencing an increase in hate speech on the site and how the network's preventive procedures, such as reporting posts, didn't operate in Myanmar.

 

"Let us be prepared because there will be a riot that will happen inside the Muslim community," she said, referring to a photo of a pile of bamboo sticks that was shared with the message "Let us be prepared because there will be a riot that will happen within the Muslim community."

The photo was reported to Facebook, but it was not taken down since it did not break any of the company's community rules, according to Htaike Htaike Aung.

"Which is absurd because it was actually advocating violence."
But Facebook didn't think so," she explained.

 

Years later, the international community became aware of the absence of moderation.
Human rights experts examining atrocities on Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority indicated in March 2018 that Facebook played a role in disseminating hate speech.

When asked about Myanmar during a U.S. Senate hearing a month later, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company planned to hire "dozens" of Burmese speakers to censor content, collaborate with civil society groups to identify hate figures, and develop new tools to combat hate speech.

 

"Hate speech is a language-specific phenomenon.
"It's difficult to accomplish without individuals who speak the local language, and we need to greatly increase our work there," Zuckerberg added.