A/HRC/39/CRP.2 rights defender for his alleged cooperation with the Mission. The post described the individual as a “national traitor”, consistently adding the adjective “Muslim”. It was shared and re-posted over 1,000 times. Numerous comments to the post explicitly called for the person to be killed, in unequivocal terms: “Beggar-dog species. As long as we are feeling sorry for them, our country is not at peace. These dogs need to be completely removed.” “If this animal is still around, find him and kill him. There needs to be government officials in NGOs.” “Wherever they are, Muslim animals don’t know to be faithful to the country.” “He is a Muslim. Muslims are dogs and need to be shot.” “Don't leave him alive. Remove his whole race. Time is ticking.” The Mission reported this post to Facebook on four occasions; in each instance the response received was that the post was examined but “doesn’t go against one of [Facebook’s] specific Community Standards”. The Mission subsequently sent a message to an official Facebook email account about the matter but did not receive a response. The post was finally removed several weeks later but only through the support of a contact at Facebook, not through the official channel. 2989 Several months later, however, the Mission found at least 16 re-posts of the original post still circulating on Facebook.2990 In the weeks and months after the post went online, the human rights defender received multiple death threats from Facebook users, warnings from neighbours, friends, taxi drivers and other contacts that they had seen his photo and the posts on Facebook, and strong suggestions that the post was an early warning. His family members were also threatened. The Mission has seen many similar cases where individuals, usually human rights defenders or journalists, become the target of an online hate campaign that incites or threatens violence. 1352. Facebook has publicly acknowledged that the company had been “too slow” in reacting to the concerns raised by civil society organizations. 2991 In June 2018, Facebook informed the Mission that it was trying to solve two specific problems in Myanmar: hate speech and misinformation as a tool for hate speech.2992 It stated that it was focusing on overcoming technical challenges (such as the different fonts used in Myanmar language), improving reporting flows (for example, the recent rollout of the ability to report content shared on Facebook Messenger), automation (including exploring the use of artificial intelligence to proactively identify content for review), and misinformation (acting on fake accounts). Facebook also stated it had added more Myanmar language reviewers to handle reports from users across all its services, increased the number of people across the company on Myanmar-related issues, and put in place a special team working to better understand the specific local challenges and build the right tools.2993 Facebook further announced that it will undertake a comprehensive human rights impact assessment in Myanmar, the findings of which will be made public.2994 1353. In 2018, Facebook designated MaBaTha and the monks Wirathu, Thuseitta and Parmakkha as hate figures and organizations. 2995 They were no longer allowed a presence on Facebook, and any other profile, page, group or piece of content that praises or supports them would be removed. Since April 2018, the Mission noted increased efforts by Facebook to remove hate speech from its platform faster, including following alerts by the Mission. On 27 August 2018, Facebook further announced that it had removed a total of 18 Facebook accounts, one Instagram account and 52 Facebook pages, followed by almost 12 million 2989 2990 2991 2992 2993 2994 2995 342 K-104. After these were brought to Facebook’s attention, they were subsequently also removed. See e.g. Facebook Newsroom, “Removing Myanmar Military Officials From Facebook”, https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/08/removing-myanmar-officials/). See also statements by Mark Zuckerberg, before the United States Congress: “We’ve been too slow to deal with the hate and violence in places like Myanmar […]. The challenges we face in a country that has fast come online are very different than those in other parts of the world, and we are investing in people, technology, and programs to help address them as effectively as possible.” (https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF00/20180411/108090/HHRG-115-IF00-Wstate-ZuckerbergM20180411.pdf) Submission from Facebook. K. Roose, P. Mozur, “Zuckerberg Was Called Out Over Myanmar Violence. Here’s His Apology” (The New York Times, 9 April 2018). Submission from Facebook. Submission from Facebook.