April 2020] THE "WEAPONIZATION" OF FACEBOOK 833 way Hitler did the Jews, damn kalars!”157 Numerous posts labeled the Rohingya as dogs, maggots, and rapists, and suggested they be exterminated.158 In 2017, the growing use of Facebook to incite hate speech against the Rohingya erupted.159 The military spread rumors on Facebook to both Muslim and Buddhist groups that an attack from the other side was imminent.160 Using the widely popular accounts they created, the Tatmadaw military signaled Buddhist nationalists via Facebook Messenger that the Rohingya would be carrying out “jihad attacks.”161 To Rohingya and Muslim groups, the military spread a different message—that nationalist Buddhist monks were organizing anti-Muslim protests.162 On August 25, 2017, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Rohingya insurgent group, launched coordinated attacks on the military in response to the growing pressure on the Rohingya.163 The Tatmadaw military’s response to the attack was “immediate, brutal and grossly disproportionate.”164 Under the guise of eliminating the terrorist threat from the ARSA, the military targeted and terrorized the entire Rohingya population and called their actions a “clearance operation.”165 As a result, by mid-August 2018, nearly 725,000 Rohingya had fled to Bangladesh.166 In 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Council determined that these “clearance operations” were a result of a systematic and planned attack that was incited by Tatmadaw military disinformation campaigns on Facebook.167 The Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (the “U.N. Report”) alleged that the Tatmadaw’s actions amounted to the gravest crimes under international law, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.168 Specifically, the U.N. Report named six Tatmadaw officials, including the Tatmadaw Commander-in-Chief, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing.169 Interestingly, the U.N. Report also mentioned Facebook specifically, stating: The role of social media is significant. Facebook has been a useful instrument for those seeking to spread hate, in a context where, for most users, Facebook is the Internet. Although improved in recent months, the response of Facebook has been slow and ineffective. The extent to which Facebook posts 157. 158. 159. 160. 161. 162. 163. 164. 165. 166. 167. 168. 169. See Stecklow, supra note 145. See Myanmar Rohingya: Facebook “Still Hosts Hate Speech,” supra note 156. See Mozur, supra note 38. Id. Id. Id. Report, supra note 11, at 8. Id. Id. Id. Id. Id. at 19. Id. at 17.