which is a screenshot from my Facebook
feed March 1., it is clear that it is the
narrative of the land grabbing Bengali that is
represented.
The lady in the movie explains how “the
Bengali attacked us in the early morning at
4:36. One of our policemen was quickly
killed”, further into the sequence, she
continues to describe how “they are shouting
many different things, like ‘Allahu Akbar’
and other frightening things.” When Khine
later was asked about the circumstances
surrounding the fact that he did not have a
Facebook profile at the moment, his
Figure VII – Screenshot from Facebook feed, March 2018
explanation had been that he was thrown out of “the Zuckerberg regime”, that it was “a
violation of freedom speech” and that “the truth is the truth, it doesn´t matter if it is hateful or
not”. This is only one example of what kind of content that could be shown in my feed. Other
times I would see dead bodies, burning houses, and other horrid pictures.
While talking to another informant, s/he12 explained to me how BBC and CNN possibly blew
the Rakhine conflict out of proportions. S/He said:
“If they say, like, 1000 people are killed, it could be only 2 persons… …The soldier’s
intention could be only fire a house or self-defense against Bengali”.
Later into the conversation s/he talked about manipulated photos and how international media
showed just one particular side of the narrative. In the case of Khine the censorship of the
third level, the international guidelines from Facebook, were the level acting out power. Or as
Khine describes it; censorship. Which level defines the frames of what is okay to write and
not? With such a different narrative on the national level and the international level, it is
possible that this video would be allowed to remain in the power of removing content was
assigned to the national level, supporting the narrative of “the land grabbing Bengali.” In that
case, it is unlikely that Khine would have been ‘kicked out’ of Facebook.
12
I do not reveal gender or name for ethical reasons.
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