Topline
Several Rohingya refugees in the U.S. and U.K. sued Facebook for $150 billion on Monday, accusing the company of allowing the spread of hate speech against them on its social media platform that was followed by large-scale violence against the ethnic minority group in Myanmar.
Recently arrived Rohingya refugees wait to receive aid donations in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
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Key Facts
A class-action suit filed in California alleges Facebook’s failures to monitor content on the platform led to real-world violence against the Muslim minority group in Myanmar, Reuters reported.
In coordination with the California filing, a law firm in the U.K. representing the refugees handed a letter of notice to Facebook’s London office.
According to the BBC, the U.K. letter additionally accuses Facebook’s algorithms of amplifying hate speech against the Rohingya and also failed to invest in moderators and fact checkers who were aware of the situation in Myanmar.
The plaintiffs are seeking to apply Burmese laws against the social media giant if it raises the U.S.’ Section 230 as a defense, which protects platforms from liability over content posted by its users.
According to Reuters, U.S. courts can apply foreign laws in cases where activity by a company caused harm abroad, but there is no known successful precedent of this being used against social media platforms.
Forbes has reached out to Facebook for comment on the two lawsuits.
Big Number
730,000. That’s the total number of Rohingya people who were forced to flee their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state after the country’s military and hardline nationalists unleashed violence against the Muslim minority group—including alleged mass murder and rapes.
Key Background
In 2018, U.N. human rights investigators found that Facebook played a “determining role” in the Rohingya genocide. The platform was slammed for allowing the spread of Islamophobic content targeting the Rohingya people. In its report on the genocide, the U.N. Human Rights Council called the platform “a useful instrument for those seeking to spread hate.” In the same year, Facebook also admitted that it had not done enough to prevent the spread of hate speech and incitement of violence on its platform against the Rohingya. The Gambia, in West Africa, is currently pursuing a case against Facebook for enabling violence against the Rohingya in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague.
Further Reading
Rohingya refugees sue Facebook for $150 billion over Myanmar violence (Reuters)
Rohingya sue Facebook for $150bn over Myanmar hate speech (BBC)
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