7. A DISASTER FOREWARNED: META’S “WILFUL BLINDNESS” IN MYANMAR Why was this not foreseen? How could [Facebook] launch such a massive operation in Myanmar and fail to staff it appropriately? I could never understand this approach. The focus was on extending Facebook and the business. It doesn’t align with their human rights [responsibilities] as a corporate actor. It can only be described as wilful blindness. Chris Sidoti, expert member of the IIFFMM257 When seeking to assess the extent of Meta’s role in respect of the 2017 atrocities against the Rohingya, an important factor is whether it was foreseeable that Meta risked contributing to human rights harms. According to international human rights standards, if a company knows, or should know, that it risks contributing to human rights harms, then it has a responsibility to take effective action to prevent and mitigate any human rights harms and risks. Accordingly, this chapter surveys the various warnings and interventions which Meta received in relation to Myanmar between 2012-2017, and then examines the role that the company’s culture may have played in exacerbating human rights risks. Amnesty International has interviewed several civil society activists who were involved in trying to convince Meta to take urgent action to avoid its platform contributing to mass atrocities in Myanmar. The organization has also analysed relevant United Nations and civil society reports and other publicly available materials which also warned of Meta’s role in the increasing risk of an outbreak of mass anti-Muslim violence. These warnings are outlined in detailed below. 257 Interview by voice call with Chris Sidoti, 13 April 2022. THE SOCIAL ATROCITY META AND THE RIGHT TO REMEDY FOR THE ROHINGYA Amnesty International 50