In a report published Thursday, Amnesty International believes that the platform has allowed hate messages to spread against this minority for its benefit.
Facebook algorithm systems “promoted violence against the Rohingya” and Goal “owes reparations” to the victims for having allowed messages of hatred against this ethnic minority to spread on its platform, affirms the organization Amnesty International in a report published Thursday, September 29.
“The dangerous algorithms of Meta, which owns Facebook, and the unrestrained pursuit of profit contributed significantly to the atrocities perpetrated by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya people in 2017”, denounces Amnesty. The human rights organization believes that “Meta knew or should have known that Facebook’s algorithm systems were amplifying the spread of harmful anti-Rohingya content in Myanmar”most “this company has refrained from acting”.
makeshift camps
In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled a bloody crackdown by the army and Buddhist militias in Burma. Testimonies have reported murders, rapes and arson. About 850,000 members of this Muslim minority live in makeshift camps in Bangladesh after fleeing. Some 600,000 others are in Rakhine State, Burma.
“In the months and years leading up to these atrocities, Facebook algorithms escalated the wave of hatred against the Rohingya, contributing to the occurrence of real-life violence”, said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International. Meta a “all interest” that Facebook users stay on the platform as long as possible, “because it allows him to sell all the more targeted advertising”notes Amnesty.
Three lawsuits
“While the Myanmar military was committing crimes against humanity against the Rohingyas, Meta was taking advantage of this sounding board created by his algorithms which induced a dizzying rise in the feeling of hatred. Meta must be accountable. This company now has the responsibility to provide reparation to all those who have suffered from the violence caused by its irresponsible actions.insists Amnesty.
Three complaints have been filed in the UK and the US by Rohingya representatives and are being investigated. Organizations of young Rohingya refugees have also brought proceedings against Meta before the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). For Amnesty, it is “absolutely essential” that Meta proceeds to a “extensive reform of its algorithm systems (…) otherwise the drama that links Meta and the Rohingyas risks being reproduced elsewhere in the world, in particular where ethnic violence is brewing”.