Case 1:20-mc-00036-JEB-ZMF Document 31 Filed 12/03/21 Page 2 of 14
minority in Myanmar. See ECF No. 27 (Pet. Response) at 3–4. As the details of that conflict are
ably described in Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui’s Order, see ECF No. 22 (MJ Order) at 2–6, the
Court need not recount them in depth here. Instead, it will focus on the facts most relevant to
The Gambia’s ancillary dispute with Facebook.
To aid its prosecution of Myanmar in the ICJ, The Gambia seeks to acquire information
from several Facebook and Instagram accounts believed to have been run by Myanmar officials
and used to spread “anti-Muslim, anti-Rohingya, and anti-activist sentiment” that contributed to
the genocide. See Pet. Resp. at 4–5 (citation omitted). Facebook and its constituent apps
(including Instagram) allow users to communicate through public and private postings, as well as
through direct-messaging services like Facebook Messenger. See ECF No. 24 (Resp. Objections
to MJ Order) at 8–9. “In countries like Myanmar, in particular, many users rely on Facebook for
most of their personal communications.” Id. at 9 (citing U.N. Human Rights Council, Report of
the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, ¶ 74, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/39/64
(Sept. 12, 2018)).
Recognizing that its platform and apps had potentially played a role in ethnic violence
against the Rohingya, Facebook removed numerous accounts and pages in 2018. For example,
in August of that year, it announced the removal of “18 Facebook accounts, one Instagram
account and 52 Facebook Pages, followed by almost 12 million people.” Id. at 10 (quoting
Removing Myanmar Military Official from Facebook, Facebook (Aug. 18, 2018, last updated
Dec. 18, 2018), https://bit.ly/3G9lHWM (Removal Post)). The company determined that several
of these pages and accounts had engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook,
meaning they used seemingly independent news and opinion Pages to covertly push the
messages of the Myanmar military.” Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). In
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