Facebook’s negligence facilitated the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar after the social media network’s algorithms amplified hate speech and the platform failed to take down inflammatory posts, according to legal action launched in the US and the UK. The platform faces compensation claims worth more than £150bn under the coordinated move on both sides of the Atlantic. It adds that the social media platform, which launched in Myanmar in 2011 and quickly became ubiquitous, aided the process. “As has been widely recognised and reported, this campaign was fomented by extensive material published on and amplified by the Facebook platform,” says the letter from the law firm McCue Jury & Partners. Facebook admitted in 2018 that it had not done enough to prevent the incitement of violence and hate speech against the Rohingya, the Muslim minority in Myanmar.

Source: The Guardian December 07, 2021 08:05 UTC