and inflammatory content in Myanmar, in a context where the risk of an outbreak of mass violence against the Rohingya was growing by the day. These content-shaping algorithms amplified dehumanizing and discriminatory anti-Rohingya content, with direct impacts on the right to equality and the right to be free from discrimination for the Rohingya. They also fuelled offline harms by amplifying content which incited and facilitated violence against the Rohingya, and by delivering this content to the users who were most likely to act upon this incitement and engage in realworld violence. This had knock-on impacts on a range of rights of the Rohingya, including the rights to life and freedom from torture, the right to education, to adequate housing and an adequate standard of living, and the right to food. 6.4 PERILOUS TRANSACTIONS: FINANCIAL INCENTIVES, ADVERTISING, AND ANTI-ROHINGYA HATE In addition to Meta’s content-shaping algorithms, there are other aspects of Meta’s business practices which may have resulted in the proliferation of anti-Rohingya content on the Facebook platform. This section first assesses the role of Meta’s ‘Instant Articles’ feature in driving financially motivated anti-Rohingya clickbait. It then briefly considers the role of paid advertising purchased by actors who were responsible for driving antiRohingya content, including the Myanmar military and Ma Ba Tha. 6.4.1 INSTANT ARTICLES As noted in Section 5.2, both the Myanmar military and hate groups such as Ma Ba Tha are widely recognized as being the key originators behind anti-Rohingya content on Facebook. However, there is a third category of actor responsible for content production that has been less widely recognized, and whose significance may have been vastly underestimated: clickbait actors. Between 2016-2018, a major shift in Myanmar’s online news environment occurred, largely as a result of Meta’s global roll-out of ‘Instant Articles’, which enables publishers and content creators to monetize their websites by registering them under the programme.245 In effect, the Instant Articles programme channels more advertising revenues to Meta by enabling users to view third-party content directly on Facebook, rather than redirecting to third-party websites. Because financial incentives under Instant Article are linked to the amount of engagement (measured in clicks and views) a piece of published content receives, publishers are incentivized to optimize their content for maximum engagement. Instant Article benefits Meta by redirecting a greater share of ad revenues to the company. It also supercharged the rise of clickbait articles, sites, and pages in Myanmar - with potentially disastrous consequences for the Rohingya.246 A 2021 investigation published by MIT Technology Review, referencing research by Victoire Rio, revealed the enormous impact this shift had on Myanmar’s media landscape. This research showed that in 2015, before Instant Articles was available in the country, six of the ten websites in Myanmar getting the most engagement on Facebook were from ‘legitimate media’. By 2017, however – one year after Instant Articles was rolled out in the country – ‘legitimate’ publishers made up only two of the top ten publishers on Facebook, and by 2018, they accounted for zero.247 According to Rio, they had been entirely replaced with “fake news and clickbait websites”.248 As noted by the IIFFMM, “[f]or many people, Facebook is the main, if not only, platform for online news and for using the Internet more broadly”.249 As such, this new Meta feature for its Facebook platform can be seen to have had an enormous impact on the overall media landscape in the country. See: Timothy B. Lee, “Facebook Instant Articles, explained”, 13 May 2015, Vox, vox.com/2015/5/13/8600753/facebook-instant-articlesexplained 245 Karen Hao, ‘How Facebook and Google fund global misinformation’, MIT Technology Review, 20 November 2021, technologyreview.com/2021/11/20/1039076/facebook-google-disinformation-clickbait 246 Karen Hao, ‘How Facebook and Google fund global misinformation’, MIT Technology Review, 20 November 2021, technologyreview.com/2021/11/20/1039076/facebook-google-disinformation-clickbait 247 Karen Hao, ‘How Facebook and Google fund global misinformation’, MIT Technology Review, 20 November 2021, technologyreview.com/2021/11/20/1039076/facebook-google-disinformation-clickbait 248 249 IIFFMM, “Detailed findings”, para. 1345. THE SOCIAL ATROCITY META AND THE RIGHT TO REMEDY FOR THE ROHINGYA Amnesty International 48