"Rohingya sue Facebook for $150bn over Myanmar hate speech", 07 December 2021

Dozens of Rohingya refugees in the UK and US have sued Facebook, accusing the social media giant of allowing hate speech against them to spread. They are demanding more than $150bn (£113bn) in compensation, claiming Facebook's platforms promoted violence against the persecuted minority. An estimated 10,000 Rohingya Muslims were killed during a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017. Facebook, now called Meta, did not immediately respond to the allegations.

... In the UK, a British law firm representing some of the refugees has written a letter to Facebook, seen by the BBC, alleging:

• Facebook's algorithms "amplified hate speech against the Rohingya people"
• The firm "failed to invest" in moderators and fact checkers who knew about the political situation in Myanmar
• The company failed to take down posts or delete accounts that incited violence against Rohingya
• It failed to "take appropriate and timely action", despite warnings from charities and the media

In the US, lawyers filed a legal complaint against Facebook in San Francisco, accusing it of being "willing to trade the lives of the Rohingya people for better market penetration in a small country in Southeast Asia."

... Facebook admitted in 2018 that it had not done enough to prevent the incitement of violence and hate speech against the Rohingya.

This followed an independent report, commissioned by Facebook, that said the platform had created an "enabling environment" for the proliferation of human rights abuse... Under US law, Facebook is largely protected from liability over content posted by its users. But the new lawsuit argues the law of Myanmar - which has no such protections - should prevail in the case. The BBC has asked Meta for comment.