It’s the latest in a series of accusations that the
social media giant fueled misinformation and
political violence, outlined in redacted internal
documents obtained by a consortium of
news organizations.
The combined legal claims from Rohingya
refugees are being filed on behalf of anyone
worldwide who survived the violence or had a
relative who died from it.
The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group
forced to flee persecution and violence in
Myanmar starting in 2017, with an estimated 1
million living in refugee camps in neighboring
Bangladesh. Some 10,000 have ended up in the
United States.
In 2018, United Nations human rights experts
investigating attacks against the Rohingya
said Facebook had played a role in spreading
hate speech.
More than 10,000 Rohingya have been killed
and more than 150,000 were subject to physical
violence, according to the law firms organizing
the cases.
The lawsuits say Facebook’s algorithms
amplified hate speech against the Rohingya
people and that it didn’t spend enough money
to hire moderators and fact checkers who
spoke the local languages or understood the
political situation.
They also say Facebook failed to shut accounts
and pages or take down posts inciting violence or
using hate speech directed at the ethnic group.
Facebook arrived in Myanmar in 2011, arranging
for millions of residents to access the internet
for the first time, according to the lawsuit filed