9/24/21, 8:16 PM Why Facebook is losing the war on hate speech in Myanmar Additional reporting by Tin Htet Paing, Simon Lewis, Shoon Naing and Aye Min Thant in Yangon.  FLEEING: Rohingya refugees who fled an army crackdown in western Myanmar last year are seen here after crossing the border into Bangladesh in October. REUTERS/Jorge Silva Facebook isn’t alone By STEVE STECKLOW Facebook isn’t the only social-media platform that contains hate speech against Rohingya Muslims. It also has proliferated on Twitter. In Myanmar, Twitter is far less popular than Facebook. But after Rohingya insurgents attacked police stations in August 2017, sparking an army crackdown that forced 700,000 people to abandon their homes, hundreds of new Twitter accounts suddenly sprang up in Myanmar. Many of the tweets on these accounts appeared to be attempts to counter sympathetic portrayals of the Rohingya by the Western news media and human rights activists. They portray the ethnic minority as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, or “Bengalis.” Members of the ethnic group regard themselves as native to Rakhine State in western Myanmar, but the country has denied most of them citizenship. Some tweets on these accounts were in broken English: “There is no Rohingya in Myanmar they are only illegal immigrant and terrorists.” “They are Originally Bangalis, Illegally migrants and Land Robbers” These and similar tweets could still be found online this month. Twitter’s “Hateful conduct policy” forbids attacking groups of people on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin, or engaging in “behavior that incites fear about a protected group.” Twitter removed a number of tweets flagged to it by Reuters. Matthew Smith, co-founder of Fortify Rights, a Southeast Asia-based human rights group, said that after the attacks by Rohingya insurgents in August last year he noticed “suspicious” accounts suddenly following him on Twitter. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-facebook-hate/ 11/13