Facebook concedes it failed to address incitement in Myanmar, must now be prepared for 2020 elections
- In August 2017, Myanmar’s military led a crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents, pushing more than 700,000 Muslims to neighbouring Bangladesh
- Facebook in August removed several Myanmar military officials from the platform to prevent the spread of ‘hate and misinformation’ for the first time banning a country’s military or political leaders
Facebook on Monday said a human rights report it commissioned on its presence in Myanmar showed it had not done enough to prevent its social network from being used to incite violence.
The report by San Francisco-based non-profit Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) recommended that Facebook more strictly enforce its content policies, increase engagement with both Myanmar officials and civil society groups and regularly release additional data about its progress in the country.
“The report concludes that, prior to this year, we weren’t doing enough to help prevent our platform from being used to foment division and incite offline violence. We agree that we can and should do more,” Alex Warofka, a Facebook product policy manager, wrote in a blog post.
BSR also warned that Facebook must be prepared to handle a likely onslaught of misinformation during Myanmar’s 2020 elections, and new problems as use of its WhatsApp grows in Myanmar, according to the report, which Facebook released.
A Reuters special report in August found that Facebook failed to promptly heed numerous warnings from organisations in Myanmar about social media posts fuelling attacks on minority groups such as the Rohingya.
In August 2017 the military led a crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents, pushing more than 700,000 Muslims to neighbouring Bangladesh, according to UN agencies.
