Rohingya sue Facebook for $150bn over Myanmar hate speech

Bangladesh, Education, Help Refugees, Human Rights, Myanmar, Refugees Issues, Religious Rights

Dozens of Rohingya refugees in the UK and US have sued Facebook, accusing the social media giant of allowing hate speech against them to spread.

They are demanding more than $150bn (£113bn) in compensation, claiming Facebook’s platforms promoted violence against the persecuted minority.

An estimated 10,000 Rohingya Muslims were killed during a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017.

Facebook, now called Meta, did not immediately respond to the allegations.

The company is accused of allowing “the dissemination of hateful and dangerous misinformation to continue for years”.

ALSO READ THIS: MAN DIES IN CLASH AT WEDDING PARTY IN UKHIYA ROHINGYA CAMP

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 the US, lawyers filed a legal complaint against Facebook in San Francisco, accusing it of being “willing to trade the lives of the Rohingya people for better market penetration in a small country in Southeast Asia.”

They cite Facebook posts that appeared in an investigation by the Reuters news agency, including one in 2013 stating: “We must fight them the way Hitler did the Jews.”