5/22/22, 8:16 PM Is Facebook responsible for Myanmar’s anti-Rohingya violence? | Coconuts Several Facebook posts by the Information Committee, an arm of Aung San Suu Kyi’s State Counsellor Office, have used the killings of nearly 100 Hindu civilians in Rakhine State to justify clearance operations that have driven more than 600,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh. The government’s account has been challenged by witnesses in Bangladesh, and Human Rights Watch has accused the government of “playing politics with the dead.” To Burma Campaign UK director Mark Farmaner, this “No, but…” response to the question of Facebook’s blame in anti-Rohingya violence is a distraction from where he says the blame truly lies – with the Myanmar government and military. “It is utter nonsense to suggest violence against the Rohingya has been fueled by Facebook posts,” he said. “What is happening to the Rohingya is a deliberate and systematic military-led operation to drive the Rohingya out of the country. This is being done by the State and a well-armed military force, not by racists posting cartoons on social media. “To borrow a phrase from Aung San Suu Kyi, the hate speech we see on social media might be most easily visible, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. For example, the attacks against Rohingya in 2012 were incited by more than a year’s worth of on-the-ground agitating and organizing by local politicians, with the cooperation of the State,” he said. Anti-Muslim monk Wirathu and the anti-Muslim 969 and Ma Ba Tha movements, which were blamed for much of the communal violence between Muslims and Buddhists in 2012 and 2013, Farmaner said, “mostly operated on the ground, distributing leaflets and DVDs, making sermons, and were facilitated by the State, which used them for its own political agenda.” “Undoubtedly, Facebook should be taking much more action against hate speech and incitement of violence against the Rohingya and all Muslims in Burma,” he said. “But it can’t be blamed for the current violence.” Jamila Hanan, a human rights activist whose #AllRohingyaNow movement has lobbied Unilever, Telenor, and Nestlé to take public stances against human rights abuses, says Facebook should be treated no differently. “Everyone has a duty to take a stand against genocide, especially corporations, including Facebook,” she said. “Clearly, in the case of the Rohingya genocide, Facebook have failed in their corporate responsibility to use their position of power to help stop these ongoing atrocities, and worse than that, they have allowed their space to be https://coconuts.co/yangon/features/facebook-responsible-myanmars-violence-against-rohingya/ 5/11