9/27/22, 2:38 PM
Facebook put profit before Rohingya lives. Now it must pay its dues | Jason McCue and James Libson | The Guardian
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This article is more than 9 months old
Facebook put profit before Rohingya lives. Now it must pay
its dues
Jason McCue and James Libson
Courts in the global north have a duty to protect citizens of
developing countries from plunder by corporations
Tue 14 Dec 2021 12.02 GMT
I
n 1977, the Myanmar military launched a national drive to register citizens and drive out people they
deemed to be “foreigners”. Since then, more than 2.5 million Rohingya people have fled the country,
with 740,000 fleeing to Bangladesh in the displacement crisis of 2017 alone. It is nearly a decade
since the Myanmar regime and its supporters were first denounced by the international community
for carrying out a “campaign of ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya people.
Legal initiatives on behalf of Rohingya survivors issued this week allege that the campaign of clearances
and genocide perpetrated on the Rohingya people was facilitated by a Goliath, Facebook. “Facebook
turned away while a genocide was being perpetrated,” claims Tun Khin, the president of the Burmese
Rohingya Organisation UK. “Putting profit before the human rights of the Rohingya people, permitting the
spread of hateful anti-Rohingya propaganda which directly led to unspeakable violence.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/14/facebook-profits-rohingya-lives-courts-myanmar
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