Facebook spotlight on Myanmar hate speech

A WHOOP of disbelief erupted in the small office used by anti-hate speech activists in Myanmar when they spotted the name that had dropped into their email inbox: Mark Zuckerberg.

In a week that saw the Facebook CEO field questions in Washington over privacy breaches and election interference, angry online warriors have thrust Myanmar and its volatile social situation into the forefront of the debate on how to fix the platform.

They say Facebook is used as a tool to spread incendiary posts, bringing bloodshed to the largely Buddhist country that has expelled some 700 000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh since late last year.

“It’s not just problematic.

“It’s dangerous and they need to take more responsibility,” said Htaike Htaike Aung, executive director of Mido, which promotes digital rights.

The group penned a letter along with five other Myanmar groups to Zuckerberg questioning his recent assertions about combating hate speech in the combustible country.

The personal reply and apology from the Silicon Valley boss came as a shock.

He thanked them for reporting the posts on the platform and said Facebook was boosting its Burmese-language staff to “better understand the specific local challenges and build the right tools to help keep people there safe”.

Facebook has come under increased pressure in Myanmar as the Rohingya crisis has intensified.

In January the social media giant removed the account of extremist monk Wirathu who had spent years posting denigrating remarks about Muslims to an enormous following, and it has also tried to regulate the use of anti-Muslim terminology.

But activists say the platform’s response rate is too slow, with malicious posts gaining traction for more than 48 hours on average before they are removed – by which time they have often gone viral.

The platform is especially powerful in Myanmar, now that military control has eased, and boasts nearly 30 million active users in a nation of just over 50 million. —