Facebook bans use of term “kala”

 

An apparent Facebook ban on the word “kala” which was originally used to describe foreigners but has increasingly been used as a derogatory term for Muslims has caused an uproar among Burma’s netizens and scholars, according a report of The Irrawaddy News Online.

 

News and entertainment website Mashable said Facebook might have imposed the ban last week in response to feedback from online community.

Nationalists often used the term kala as a racial slur against Muslims who face widespread discrimination.

 

Facebook reportedly blocked posts with any reference to the word, drawing criticism of netizens, many of whom wrote posts, including the term kala and were temporarily barred from the site.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/facebook-bans-use-term-kala/

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2017-06-03

is that similar to "infidel"?

Oh, so FB were happy with a term seen as derogatory, in describing foreigners, but not when used to specifically describe Muslims.

Sorry, the world has gone nuts over political correctness.  

FALANG ? FARANG < ANYONE < HA next , 

I would hazard that the word translates to 'colour' as it would be in a phonetic language. To ascribe this to muslim would seem a bit strange. In any case I agree with the previous poster, political correctness has gone nuts.

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2560 at 5:57 PM, maoro2013 said:

I would hazard that the word translates to 'colour' as it would be in a phonetic language. To ascribe this to muslim would seem a bit strange. In any case I agree with the previous poster, political correctness has gone nuts.

To assume that it's pidgin English is probably a hazardous guess, linguistically. To guess that it means 'black' as in Urdu and elsewhere might be closer... 

On 6/6/2017 at 11:35 AM, Hardie said:

To assume that it's pidgin English is probably a hazardous guess, linguistically. To guess that it means 'black' as in Urdu and elsewhere might be closer... 

ah so the color thickens.