be left alive”. Facebook´s algorithms translation was then: “I shouldn´t have a rainbow in
Myanmar” (Stecklow, 2018b). As a result of this issue, the translation-function was removed
until further notice on the 28. August 2018, after just a short period of time (Stecklow,
2018a).
Mimi and Pemala once told me how English translation was a problem. I had asked them
about the Facebook posts some people write in English and why. Laughing, they looked at me
and said that it is because of “likes,” they get more likes if they write in English. When asking
if all of their Facebook friends were able to read it, referring to the level of English skills most
people inhabit, Mimi answered: “Nooo, not all of friends.” Pemala continued: “They like it
still, translation is bad, so they cannot understand all posts.” I did not think much of it at the
time, but it turned out that this is part of a more significant issue. If the translations were
accurate, it could have been, in addition to understanding posts in general, an essential tool in
the fight against hate-speech. Proper translation could allow non-Burmese-speaking residents
to report potential hateful content.
The Facebook-system, the algorithms that usually works with constraining hate speech is not
fully functional with Burmese script, and this is partly because of the font issues. This means
that Facebook is more dependent than in most of the other countries they work in on their
users to report content that is discriminating or violent in the platform, and that they depend
on having enough employees to handle the reported content. In most parts of the world, this is
functional, and together with the algorithms, it is sufficient. Why not in Myanmar?
We already know that Facebook was too late to the game with sufficient Burmese-speaking
employees, but what about the first step? For the employees to be able to do their job they
rely on the fact that people actually report content to review.
To then be able to function appropriately, Facebook relies on what Miller addresses as
participatory surveillance.(Daniel Miller, 2011, p. 173). Alternatively, as Lambert puts it:
“Facebook is a kind of ‘participatory panopticon’ in which users willingly submit to the
‘policing and establishing of normative behavior.’” (Lambert, 2013, p. 41) This allows the
users, to some extent, surveil their environment in the feed. Through interactions and
reporting content, they are part of the security system as well as establishing the social
frames, contexts, and norms of the accepted behavior, or in this case – the sound of the
content.
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