April 2020] THE "WEAPONIZATION" OF FACEBOOK 837 Be warned and stay alert every time you go and eat. The Kalar are planning to launch a Jihad on Monday 11 Sept. Warn your friends. The order to get ready with guns has already been issued in the army. Please forward this message in the chat box. Friends, brothers, and sisters, lets unite. Dear Islam brother, be warned and stay alert every time you go and eat. On Sept 11 in Yangon, MaBaTha and extremist nationalists will collaborate and they will launch an anti kalar movement. Please forward this message to our brothers.196 The civil society organizations claimed that these messages spread in an “unprecedented way, reaching country-wide and causing widespread fear and at least three violent incidents in the process.”197 Similar to Walmart’s failure to stop suppliers from committing labor abuses,198 one could argue that Facebook substantially contributed to the Tatmadaw’s crimes for failing to report or alert the Burmese government of the rising tensions. Facebook, however, cannot be wholly responsible for failing to act as a whistleblower for all human rights abuses that may occur through its platform. Alternatively, Facebook could be held accountable for substantially contributing to the military’s calculated attack against the Rohingya through another theory—rather than failing to act, Facebook disseminated information more quickly and spread the narrative of the conflict. Reports and studies conducted in 2017 support this theory. Alan Davis, Asia and Eurasia Director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, conducted a two-year anti-hate speech project in Myanmar from 2015–2017.199 At the beginning of the project, Davis noticed that “the vast majority of hate speech was on social media, particularly Facebook.”200 Not all hate speech was anti-Muslim or anti-Rohingya.201 Over time, however, Davis began noticing that “hate speech [became] more targeted and militaristic.” 202 Prior to August 2017, Davis noticed posts regarding “claims of Islamic State (IS) flags flying over mosques in Yangon where munitions were being stored, of thwarted plots to blow up the 2,500 year-old Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon and supposed cases of Islamic agents smuggling themselves across the border.”203 Signs denoting “Muslim free areas” were shared more than 11,000 times.204 Davis shared this information with officials and local journalists, in an effort to spur a response; however, officials and journalists refused to investigate further.205 196. Id. 197. Id. 198. Cassel, supra note 68, at 305. 199. Alan Davis, How Social Media Spurred Myanmar’s Latest Violence, INST. WAR & PEACE REPORTING (Sept. 12, 2017), https://iwpr.net/global-voices/how-social-media-spurred-myanmars-latest. 200. Id. 201. Id. 202. Id. 203. Id. 204. Libby Hogan & Michael Safi, Revealed: Facebook Hate Speech Exploded in Myanmar During Rohingya Crisis, GUARDIAN (Apr. 2, 2018, 8:06 PM), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/03/ revealed-facebook-hate-speech-exploded-in-myanmar-during-rohingya-crisis. 205. Id.