BSR | Human Rights Impact Assessment: Facebook in Myanmar 54 RISK MITIGATION AND OPPORTUNITY ENHANCEMENT Recommendation Create multiple scenarios for how the human rights context may evolve in Myanmar and generate approaches capable of addressing multiple scenarios. These scenarios could be used by Facebook’s local and regional staff to identify signals of change in the human rights context that may impact the company’s risk profile and adjust priorities accordingly. Explanation The next decade of social, political, and economic development in Myanmar could take many different directions. For example: Elections may be smooth or may not be; the military may relinquish power, or seek to increase it; legal reform that advances the rule of law may be implemented, or today’s legal framework could be retained; efforts at conflict resolution may succeed or fail. Companies operating in Myanmar are welladvised to understand and prepare for multiple different human rights scenarios that might unfold in the future. Principle 17(c) of the UNGPs states that human rights due diligence “should be ongoing, recognizing that the human rights risks may change over time as the business enterprise’s operations and operating context evolve.” Prepare for the possibility that WhatsApp will be more commonly used in Myanmar. Facebook should consider how to address concerns about the use of WhatsApp to spread hate speech and misinformation intended to accentuate violence or cause harm, but in ways that do not undermine the ability of users to benefit from encrypted communications. Strategies could include limiting the number of times messages can be forwarded or using metadata to identify the likely spread of hate speech, misinformation, and disinformation. Develop a risk-mitigation plan for Myanmar’s 2020 parliamentary elections. This mitigation plan should include intelligencegathering from users, civil society organizations, and relevant government entities. Examples of items to consider for the mitigation plan include digital- and media-literacy efforts in the months leading up to the election, identification of key red flags and “warning signs,” exploration into how the Facebook platform could be used at election time, the deployment of fact-checking organizations, and the role of so-called “yellow media” (publications that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news but instead use eyecatching headlines). Ownership of this plan could be held by the new Facebook Global Elections Integrity Operations Team. Several international organizations and governments will be deeply involved in providing election-related At present, WhatsApp has a far lower user base than other Facebook products in Myanmar. However, owing to its ease of use, there is a realistic scenario where WhatsApp becomes more widely used, including to spread hate speech and misinformation intended to accentuate violence or cause harm. In this scenario, it would become more challenging to implement Facebook’s Community Standards and act against bad content, owing to the encrypted nature of communications content. Principle 17 of the UNGPs states that “business enterprises should identify general areas where the risk of adverse human rights impacts is most significant … and prioritize these for human rights due diligence.” Article 21 of the UDHR states that “everyone has the right to take part in the government of his or her country, directly or through freely chosen representatives; Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his or her country; and the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”