"A War of Words Puts Facebook at the Center of Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis", 27 Oct 2017

Myanmar’s government has barred Ashin Wirathu, an ultranationalist Buddhist monk, from public preaching for the past year, saying his speeches helped fuel the violence against the country’s Rohingya ethnic group that the United Nations calls ethnic cleansing... So he has turned to an even more powerful...platform to get his message out — Facebook. International human rights groups say Facebook should be doing more to prevent the hateful speech, focusing as much on global human rights as on its business...Across the world, Facebook and other social platforms are being questioned about their expanding role and responsibilities as publishers of information. In Myanmar... the stakes of what appears on the site are exceptionally high...After the 2016 United States elections, Facebook rolled out a set of guidelines to help users identify fake news and misinformation. The company does not regularly remove misinformation itself... [C]ompany has worked with local partners to introduce a Burmese-language illustrated copy of its platform standards and will “continue to refine” its practices, said a spokeswoman, Clare Wareing, in an emailed statement.