4/4/22, 10:39 AM Mark Zuckerberg Sent An Apology Letter About Myanmar. These NGOs Called It “Grossly Insufficient.” The Myanmar NGOs sent BuzzFeed News Zuckerberg's letter a day before he is expected to testify in front of members of two US Senate committees about “privacy, safety, and democracy.” The Facebook founder sent the letter in response to heavy criticism after he gave an interview earlier this month in which he credited his social network’s systems for stopping messages inciting ethnic violence in Myanmar. In response, the NGOs said they, not Facebook, had been responsible for flagging many of the problematic social media posts and messages affecting their country and called the company’s approach “far from systematic.” ADVERTISEMENT “Thank you for writing it and I apologize for not being sufficiently clear about the important role that your organizations play in helping us understand and respond to Myanmar-related issues,” Zuckerberg wrote to the groups. “In making my remarks, my intention was to highlight how we’re building artificial intelligence to help us better identify abusive, hateful or false content even before it is flagged by our community.” The groups, which include Equality Myanmar and the Center for Social Integrity, which is based in Yangon, Myanmar, did not mince words in their response. “This is grossly insufficient and only reinforces our belief that Facebook is not doing anywhere near as much as they should and could do to prevent the spread of hatred in Myanmar,” Victoire Rio, a social media analyst and spokesperson for the groups, told BuzzFeed News. While Facebook bans the incitement of violence and hate speech based on a person’s race or religion, its systems, which include automated programs and human moderators, do not always catch bad actors. In places like Myanmar, the company relies on users to report examples of hate speech, something that critics say is hard to do because of the volume and lack of clarity from Facebook. ADVERTISEMENT https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/mark-zuckerbeg-apology-myanmar-ngos-insufficient 2/6