Rohingyas have filed a £150 billion lawsuit against Facebook for hate speech in Myanmar

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

Hundreds of Rohingya refugees in the United Kingdom and the United States have sued Facebook, alleging that the social media giant aided the spread of anti-Rohingya hate speech.

They are seeking more than $150 billion (£113 billion) in damages, claiming that Facebook's platforms encouraged violence against persecuted minorities.

During a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017, an estimated 10,000 Rohingya Muslims were slaughtered.

The charges were not immediately responded to by Facebook, which is now known as Meta.

The corporation has been charged with allowing "the spread of vile and deadly falsehoods to persist for years."

 

In the UK, a British law firm representing some of the refugees has written a letter to Facebook, seen by the BBC, alleging:

 

• Facebook's algorithms "amplified hate speech against the Rohingya people"
• The firm "failed to invest" in moderators and fact checkers who knew about the political situation in Myanmar
• The company failed to take down posts or delete accounts that incited violence against Rohingya
• It failed to "take appropriate and timely action", despite warnings from charities and the media

 

In San Francisco, lawyers filed a lawsuit against Facebook, accusing the company of being "ready to trade the lives of the Rohingya people for improved market penetration in a minor Southeast Asian country."

They cite Facebook messages found in a Reuters investigation, including one from 2013 that stated, "We must attack them like Hitler did the Jews."

"Pour fuel and light fire so that they can meet Allah quickly," another post wrote.

Myanmar has more than 20 million Facebook users.
For many people, social media is their primary or sole source of news and information.

 

In 2018, Facebook recognised that it had not done enough to prevent incitement to violence and hate speech against Rohingya Muslims.

This came after a Facebook-commissioned independent assessment found that the social media network had created a "enabling environment" for the spread of human rights violations.

In Myanmar, the Rohingya are considered illegal migrants and have faced discrimination from both the government and the general population for decades.

After Rohingya terrorists carried out deadly attacks on police checkpoints in Rakhine state in 2017, the Myanmar military initiated a harsh crackdown.