Tech & Genocide - Of the Rohingyas
Genocide of Rohingyas
Violence against the Rohingyas date from the 1970s. In the 80s the military belonging to the Burmese
Buddhist majority marginalized minorities, striped them of their rights, limited their movements and
passed a law portraying them as not Burmese.
In 2011 the country had free elections for the first time and started to open up to the world. The
use of mobile phone and internet previously nonexistent rose rapidly. These technologies perceived at
first as a tool for democracy and freedom of expression would not have the desired effects.
With 50 millions of potential users, Facebook entered the market by making deals with phones companies
to have their app preinstalled with the ability to access internet free of charge. Viewed as an all
in one application it became for the majority of people The Internet and the main source of news.
In 2012 a new series of violence started against the Rohingyas. The vile rhetoric directed towards
them have been stoked by Buddhist nationalists, a monk Ashin Wirathu and his 969 movement. The
hatred previously distributed through flyers was afterwards spread more widely with the arrival of
Facebook. In 2016 the Military joined the platform pretending to be news sites or lifestyle pages and
amplified the propaganda. After a killing allegedly committed by Rohingyas, information got
distorted, conspiracy emerged presenting them as foreign invaders who stockpiled weapons to take
over the country and destroy the Burmese people.
The ensuing violence perpetrated by local villagers and aided by the military resulted in hundreds
of villages burned to the ground, mass killing and the exodus of more than one millions of Rohingyas
from the Rakhine state to the Kutupalong Camp in Cox’s Bazar in the neighboring state of Bangladesh.
Facebook ubiquitousness and viral properties made it a fertile ground for the dissemination of hate
speech. Training their algorithms to maximize user engagement leads to the promotion of
outrageous content appearing in the news feed based on their potential virality as well as
recommendations of people, page to follow and group to join. Creating a vicious circle when no
actions are taken to put a term to it.
Multiple people and organizations have since 2012 alerted in vain Facebook of the danger of their
product. Some traveled directly to their headquarters to raise the issue. They were asked to have a
presence in the country, to have a moderation team of decent size with knowledge in the local
languages and to remove hateful posts and accounts. As well as having an ongoing consultation with
actors of civil society and government in a fully transparent manner.
Facebook has willfully chosen to ignore the problem and not implement the proposed solutions viewed
as a an obstacle to growth and profit.
§
- [Previous] Tech & Genocide - Of the Uyghurs
- [Next] Tech & Genocide - Of the Palestinians