“Facebook has faced criticism for allegedly facilitating the dissemination of hate speech targeting the Rohingya community, which has been linked to their displacement into Bangladesh during a government crackdown. This situation has led to a UN investigation into potential genocide.”The UN has stated that there is substantial evidence indicating that Myanmar’s military clandestinely orchestrated the hate speech campaign targeting the Rohingya community.
Geneva, Switzerland: Myanmar’s military was behind dozens of seemingly unrelated Facebook pages spewing hate speech against the Rohingya prior to its dramatic 2017 crackdown against the mostly Muslim minority, a UN probe found Wednesday.
Facebook has long been accused of helping spread vast amounts of hate speech against the Rohingya before hundreds of thousands of them were driven into neighbouring Bangladesh in a crackdown now subject to a UN genocide investigation.In late 2021, Rohingya refugees sued Facebook for $150 billion, claiming the social network failed to stem the hate speech directed against them.Now, the United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) says there is clear evidence Myanmar’s military secretly orchestrated the hate speech campaign.The military had in a “systematic and coordinated” manner “spread material designed to instil fear and hatred of the Rohingya minority”, the investigators said in a fresh report.
