ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship #PeoplePower | How Are People Resisting #DigitalDictatorship? Resilient Voices: Rohingya’s Struggle Against Meta’s Role in State-Led Hate Speech and Genocide What happened? Fighting back in court! In 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council Communication technologies function as the established the Independent International Fact- essential lifeblood for Rohingya, allowing them Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFMM) to establish to articulate a unified narrative advocating for the facts and circumstances of the alleged human justice and citizenship rights in various spheres. rights violations by military and security forces, They include Rohingya diaspora groups, who are and abuses, in Myanmar. steadfast in vocalising their opposition against 118 In 2018, The United Nations (UN) underscored the Burmese military, utilising various social media’s pivotal role in the platforms to intensify their battle Rohingya genocide, specifically and expose the collusion of Meta/ citing Facebook as a “useful Facebook.122 Armed with digital skills, instrument” for disseminating the diaspora is steadfast in vocalising their hate speech. opposition against the genocidal regime, utilising 119 The reported complicity of Meta in the dissemination of hate speech against the Rohingya has faced strong condemnation.120 According to Amnesty International, Meta’s profit-driven algorithms significantly played a part in the brutal actions carried out by the Myanmar military. Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, explicitly linked the escalation of hatred against the Rohingya to Facebook’s algorithms, stating, “In 2017, the Rohingya were killed, tortured, raped, and displaced in the thousands as part of the Myanmar security forces’ campaign of ethnic cleansing. In the months and years leading up to the atrocities, Facebook’s algorithms were intensifying a storm of hatred against the Rohingya which contributed to real-world violence”.121 200 various platforms to intensify their battle and expose the collusion of Meta/Facebook. Rohingya have tirelessly campaigned for the recognition of their sufferings and rights. Activists have urged international human rights agencies, including the United Nations, to endorse the findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (IIFFMM) report, emphasising the Rohingya’s growing risk of recurrence of genocide.123 Finally, on 23 January 2020, the ICJ ordered provisional measures to prevent the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar in the first ruling related to The Gambia v. Myanmar, a case filed in November 2019 that seeks to enforce the UN 1948 Genocide Convention.124 In 2018, Meta publicly admitted to being slow in addressing misinformation and hate on its platform. Dawn of Digital Dictatorship: Weaponizing the Law Against Online Speech in Southeast Asia