Case 1:20-mc-00036-JEB-DAR Document 10 Filed 08/18/20 Page 7 of 29 INTRODUCTION Publicly, Facebook, Inc. (“Facebook”) admits that it “can and should do more”1 to prevent its platform from being used to incite violence and that of course it wants to cooperate in investigating genocidal behavior. However, when presented with the opportunity, Facebook claims that its hands are tied, and that it is forced to shield genocidal terrorists under the guise of U.S. Law. But this is simply not true. Contrary to Facebook’s argument in its opposition, the Stored Communications Act (“SCA” or the “Act”) does not apply to The Republic of the Gambia’s (“The Gambia”) requests because that law – passed to protect the privacy interests of the American people in the content of their lawful electronic communications – does not apply to foreign governments that are, by Facebook’s own admission, misusing its electronic communication service. Moreover, even if the SCA did apply, Facebook can disclose much of the requested information under two clearly-applicable statutory exceptions that would allow Facebook, if it truly wanted to, to side with those investigating genocide. Instead, Facebook has chosen to protect the privacy interests of foreign government officials of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (“Myanmar”) who have indisputably misused its service and are suspected of genocide.2 Facebook cannot credibly deny this is the case since, in the past, when Facebook has determined information is vitally important to release, it has released that information rather than claiming that its hands are tied by the SCA.3 Other social media platforms are establishing an 1 Alexandra Stevenson, Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar, The New York Times (Nov. 6, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/technology/myanmar-facebook.html 2 See 18 U.S.C. § 2702 (2020). 3 Elliot Schrage, Hard Questions: Russian Ads Delivered to Congress, Facebook (Oct. 2, 2017), https://about.fb.com/news/2017/10/hard-questions-russian-ads-delivered-to-congress/.