6/9/22, 1:06 PM Is Facebook’s bias a source of concern for Myanmar’s 2020 election? | Eleven Media Group Co., Ltd If Facebook does not officially clarify its position on this matter and goes on a removing spree before the election period, the fairness and integrity of Facebook will definitely be questioned by all. What has Facebook prepared? According to Sarah Oh, Facebook’s Program Manager for Southeast Asia’s information team, “Facebook will be learning from past events like the US election in order to make better decisions for future elections.” She met with the media in Yangon at Novotel on August 5, 2019. At that press conference, Facebook claimed that it has been preparing for the 2020 election since 2019 by employing over 100 Myanmar language speaking staff that will be able to sift through all written content, according to Rafael Frankel, Facebook’s Director of Public Policy for Southeast Asia. He also said that the employed Myanmar staff have all been ultra-familiarized with Facebook’s community standards and are qualified to review whether content is in line with said standards. He further claims that services of third parties will also be utilized to decide between true and false news, which will be decided based on Facebook’s community standard. Community Standards under fire When it comes to the Community Standards held so dear by Facebook, it is a growing point of contention for many as more and more users continue to criticize Facebook over temporary suspensions and permanent removals or bans of pages and user accounts. Amongst the many posts that were banned, several were posts that belonged to political commentators, activists, and politicians. Back in December last year, Facebook temporarily restricted the posting and sharing capabilities of an account belonging to Dr Yan Myo Thein, a political analyst and commentator. He claims that despite being punished, he still does not know which community standard he might have breached. “Facebook had taken more actions against me at 2:51 pm today. The pages and groups that I manage or are a part of are now closed to me in terms of updating a post or sharing one until 2.51 pm, January 2, 2020. I fail to understand which of my posts infringed Facebook’s Community Standards. I am writing this post so that my comrades and friends are able to seriously consider this matter,” said Dr Yan Myo Thein on his social media account on December 30, 2019. Regarding this matter, he says that Facebook needs to be more open and transparent with its users. “If I want to share any of my posts via my phone to a group, I cannot because my facebook account continues to be restricted. I cannot share as much as I want. I can do so on a computer but if it's via the mobile application, I can probably share around only 10 posts. Facebook doesn’t notify me about this at all. Facebook must openly communicate with its users,” he said. Another user named U Aung Phyo also had his account temporarily banned for a photo comment he left on another post. “Even if a person adheres to Facebook Community Standards, negative factors -- such as 1) removal of posts due to reporting by a group of people, 2) bad translation and lack of proficiency in the Myanmar language by the regional facebook team, and 3) the regional team’s personal bias and corruption -- impacts a user’s right to express his/her opinion. Because of these reasons I believe Facebook has diverged greatly from the values of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg,” said Aung Phyo. While many of these cases exist, there are also plenty of pages and posts that clearly violate these Community Standards but continue to exist on the platform. It isn’t surprising that more people are beginning to question Facebook’s censorship policies. U Zaw Moe Kyaw, another political analyst, had openly questioned this matter. “Some posts get fiercely and concisely blocked and deleted. Examples are the word “Bengali ”,criticisms toward the NLD, criticisms toward the leaders, criticisms of religions, and criticisms of the country. Some news and factual videos are even getting censored. What exactly is Facebook’s censorship policy?” said Zaw Moe Kyaw. Is Facebook biased for hate speech? A prominent choice by Facebook’s effort against hate speech in Myanmar is the usage of the term “kalar”. Facebook will either issue a warning or suspend the account if a person uses that word. https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/is-facebooks-bias-a-source-of-concern-for-myanmars-2020-election-0 3/10