THE SOCIAL ATROCITY
META AND THE RIGHT TO REMEDY FOR THE ROHINGYA
Beginning in August 2017, the Myanmar security forces undertook a brutal
campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s
Northern Rakhine State. A UN investigation found that the role of Facebook
in the violence was “significant”.
This report is based on an in-depth investigation into Meta (formerly
Facebook)’s role in the serious human rights violations perpetrated against
the Rohingya. It reveals that in the months and years leading up to the 2017
atrocities, the Facebook platform became an echo chamber of virulent antiRohingya content in Myanmar. Meta’s algorithms proactively amplified and
promoted content which incited violence, hatred, and discrimination against
the Rohingya – pouring fuel on the fire of long-standing discrimination and
substantially increasing the risk of an outbreak of mass violence.
Despite its partial acknowledgement that it played a role in the 2017 violence
against the Rohingya, Meta has to date failed to provide an effective remedy
to affected Rohingya communities. However, Amnesty International’s
systematic legal analysis of Meta’s role in the atrocities perpetrated against
the Rohingya leaves little room for doubt: Meta substantially contributed to
adverse human rights impacts suffered by the Rohingya and has a
responsibility to provide survivors with an effective remedy.
INDEX: ASA 16/5933/2022
SEPTEMBER 2022
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
amnesty.org