Complicity of Social Media Companies in Inciting Genocide Hakim I. I NTRODUCTION On August 25, 2017, in the western region of Myanmar known as Rakhine State, a conflict of untold horror—long in the making—spiraled out of control.1 In the day’s first hours, a band of Rohingya Islamist insurgents, armed with sticks, knives, and makeshift bombs attacked a series of government outposts.2 The attacks left seventy-one dead, among them fifty-nine Rohingya militants and twelve government officials.3 In response, the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, announced the launch of “clearance operations,” an all-out assault on thousands of Rohingya civilians.4 The Tatmadaw razed whole villages, killing thousands of people.5 Women and girls were subjected to brutal gang rapes.6 Homes were reduced to ash.7 Altogether, the operations forced more than 745,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.8 According to the U.N., over 600,000 Rohingya remain at “serious risk of genocide” in Myanmar.9 The sheer scale of violence led journalists, human rights organizations, and the U.N. to investigate the Tatmadaw’s response to the August 25 incident, including how an entire nation remained passive as thousands of Rohingya civilians were killed, raped, and displaced from their homes.10 These investigations revealed an elaborate disinformation campaign, spanning years, whereby senior Tatmadaw officials used Facebook, the “main mode of communication among 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Who Are the Rohingya?, AL JAZEERA (Apr. 18, 2018), http://perma.cc/7XZG-MYBP. Wa Lone & Antoni Slodkowski, 'And Then They Exploded': How Rohingya Insurgents Built Support for Assault, REUTERS (Sept. 6, 2017), http://perma.cc/K9XS-B4GR. Wa Lone & Shoon Naing, At Least 71 Killed in Myanmar as Rohingya Insurgents Stage Major Attack, REUTERS (Aug. 24, 2017), http://perma.cc/E5YN-4JZS. Stephanie Nebehay, Brutal Myanmar Army Operation Aimed at Preventing Rohingya Return: U.N, REUTERS (Oct. 11, 2017), http://perma.cc/UP8M-MS3A. Tun Khin, It’s Been Two Years Since 730,000 Rohingya Were Forced to Flee. There’s No End in Sight to the Crisis, TIME (Aug. 25, 2019), http://perma.cc/DWX7-779E. Human Rights Council, Thirty-Ninth Session, Rep. of the Indep. Int’l Fact-Finding Mission on Myan. Established Pursuant to Resolution 34/22, ¶ 38, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/39/64 (Sept. 12, 2018) [hereinafter Report]. Id. at ¶ 37. U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Rohingya Refugee Crisis, http://perma.cc/S4NQ-RSQM. Richard Sargent, 600,000 Rohingya Still in Myanmar at 'Serious Risk of Genocide': UN, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES (Sept. 16, 2019), http://perma.cc/2VB8-DK7G. See, for example, Report, supra note 6, at ¶¶ 36-38; Steve Stecklow, Why Facebook Is Losing the War on Hate Speech in Myanmar, REUTERS (Aug. 15, 2018), http://perma.cc/QVW2-UBEM. Summer 2020 85