Facebook Has Turned Into a Beast in Myanmar, UN Says (bbc.com)

UN investigators have accused Facebook of playing a "determining role" in stirring up hatred against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. From a report: One of the team probing possible acts of genocide said Facebook had "turned into a beast." About 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military launched an operation in August against "insurgents" in Rakhine state. Facebook has said there is "no place for hate speech" on its platform. "We take this incredibly seriously and have worked with experts in Myanmar for several years to develop safety resources and counter-speech campaigns," a Facebook spokeswoman told the BBC.

The UN's Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar announced the interim findings of its investigation on Monday. During a press conference the chairman of the mission, Marzuki Darusman, said that social media had "substantively contributed to the level of acrimony" amongst the wider public, against Rohingya Muslims. "Hate speech is certainly, of course, a part of that," he added.

Comments

Two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner

[rmdingler]

The now famous line about the potential perils of democracy is what comes to mind in this most certainly not isolated incident.

When a majority of the people agree it is socially acceptable to hatemonger upon a targeted minority, the rule of law is rendered mute by the cacophony of voices willing to suspend decency for the brief ecstasy of a social like or two or thirty.

Re:No that title is just wrong

[ShanghaiBill]

But you have to blame the population and government for these tragedies.

That would mean admitting that the Nobel Peace Prize was given to the wrong person.

Here is a complete list of all the things necessary to turn the oppressed into oppressors:

1. Power

It's not Facebook ...

[CaptainDork]

... and it's not other social media.

It's people who take that sit seriously.

You'd think that, by now, people would know that social media is a game room.

It was intended for entertainment purposes only.

It's not Facebook.

It's us.

Ordering and Moderation

[Prien715]

What's terribly insidious about Facebook as a platform is not the speech it allows, but the speech it promotes.

Here on /., you have numerous ways about how to order the comments on the site, which ones to show/not show, etc. Facebook does not. Instead, it orders your feed based on what it thinks you will interact with -- this happens to be things which we strongly disagree with. Instead of a society where reasonable people have discussions about solutions to problems, Facebook has created a platform where it literally promotes posts that troll to increase "user engagement" -- and thus their ad revenue. Online discussions have literally become worse since Facebook has existed -- and you see it here too.

In Soviet Valley, Facebook uses you.

Re:Ordering and Moderation

[countach]

I don't see how that's different to every other media platform including this one. Controversy attracts eyeballs. Eyeballs attract ads. Ads attract money. etc. Look at the recent CNN controversy where they basically admitted the Russia scandal they've been promoting is fake news.

Rohingyans Brought it on Themselves

[DatbeDank]

The Rohingyan Muslims have for years been a constant thorn in the side of Burmese people and government. The Rohingyans have been attacking and killing the Buddhists in the region for well over a century now.

This so-called "Genocide" is the response to constant acts of violent Jihad against otherwise peaceful Buddhists that have been going on for years. Shame that the media has been ignoring the plight of these peaceful Buddhists finally snapping and defending themselves against this onslaught of Arabic barbarism.

Make no mistake, the Rohingyans brought it upon themselves for their inability to peacefully live alongside Buddhists.

Re:Rohingyans Brought it on Themselves

[Luckyo]

Because it's a well documented historic fact. Look up what happened in 1942 for example. Bangladeshi Muslims were basically the British weapon of conquest against native Burmese Buddhists supported by Japanese.

And then Brits pulled out as Japanese defeated them at the time

Current mess is geopolitically likely an anti-Chinese move. OBOR needs exits to the maritime lanes that bypass potential naval blockade of Straight of Malacca. Rakhine is one of these exits. Pumping up the Muslim insurgency against Buddhists was clearly supposed to destabilize the region to prevent it. But the "Nobel peace laureate" of the West decided she wasn't going to be the puppet after she got in power and allowed army to counter the insurgency all out. After all, Burma was her state now and her Western sponsors were too invested in her to truly harm her.

No, the beast is Islam

[Chrisq]

If the Rohingya hadn't come to Myanmar and started demanding privileges, killing and raping it would not have happened. We can see that they are up to the same tricks in Sri Lanka too. We should not criticise, in a generation's time or sooner we will have to do the same in the West or become sharia hell holes.

Wrong country

[evanh]

The problems reported are in the country they came from, not where they fled to. In other words, the Facebook problem is what forced them to cross the border.

Re:No that title is just wrong

[gnick]

My biggest fear realized! What a fool I am! My FB account has links to my family, my friends! They could ALL fall victim to... What exactly?