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A Look at Facebook's Presence in Myanmar Where Despite Public Outcries, Facebook is Still Struggling To Contain Hate Speech (reuters.com) 110

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
More than 1,000 anti-Rohingya posts featuring calls for their murder among other hate speech were live on Facebook last week, Reuters reported Wednesday. A probe by the news agency indicates that the network is still being used to encourage violence against the Muslim group in Myanmar despite the tech firm promising to tackle the issue. Reuters reports some of the material had been online for six years. Facebook's rules prohibit "violent or dehumanizing" attacks on ethnic groups. However, the US-based firm mostly relies on users to flag related offending posts rather than hunting them out itself, in part because its software has not had enough training to reliably interpret Burmese text.

Vice reports that Facebook has hired an outside company to look into its role in spreading hate speech and enabling ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
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A Look at Facebook's Presence in Myanmar Where Despite Public Outcries, Facebook is Still Struggling To Contain Hate Speech More

A Look at Facebook's Presence in Myanmar Where Despite Public Outcries, Facebook is Still Struggling To Contain Hate Speech

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  • Simple solution: Pull Facebook out of Myanmar (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2018 @01:29PM (#57131876) Journal
    If Facebook is basically fighting a flood with a broom then perhaps they should just not allow anyone in Myanmar to use Facebook for a while. Assuming, that is, that Facebook is actually serious about prohibiting "violent or dehumanizing" attacks on ethnic groups, as they say.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rsborg ( 111459 )

      If Facebook is basically fighting a flood with a broom then perhaps they should just not allow anyone in Myanmar to use Facebook for a while. Assuming, that is, that Facebook is actually serious about prohibiting "violent or dehumanizing" attacks on ethnic groups, as they say.

      Or at least, just start suspending accounts. Of course, that would mean "reduced engagement" and FB can't get off that drug.

    • Assuming, that is, that Facebook is actually serious about prohibiting "violent or dehumanizing" attacks on ethnic groups, as they say.

      If Facebook turned every server off today and nobody could access, much less post, anything on Facebook, it would not be adding one thing to prohibiting attacks on anyone. Facebook can no more prohibit "violent or dehumanizing" attacks than they can prohibit the sun from rising in the morning.

      All they can do is remove speech from their forums. Ethnic cleansing activities will continue without noticing the "disturbance in the force" that Facebook shutting down would cause. (Note that "the disturbance in th

      • Listen, buddy: if your Very Large Social Media Website was being used to not only promote violence against an ethnic group, but more or less being used as a C&C server for people to organize their attacks, wouldn't you think about pulling their access entirely if you couldn't stem the flow of site-policy-violating content? They're essentially using Facebook to commit murder and the Myanmar government is all for it. You can't stop the killing in Myanmar but you can stop them using YOUR WEBSITE to help th

        • Listen, buddy:

          Listen yourself. I am not your "buddy", and the arrogant and insulting tone of your use of that term is not acceptable.

          if your Very Large Social Media Website was being used to not only promote violence against an ethnic group, but more or less being used as a C&C server for people to organize their attacks, wouldn't you think about pulling their access entirely if you couldn't stem the flow of site-policy-violating content?

          Of course I would. And if that content was in a language that I was not able to read myself and had limited resources in my employ that could, I'd put in place a system where the people WHO CAN read it could report problems so I'd know what to look at for removal. JUST LIKE FACEBOOK ALREADY DID.

          Read that again: Facebook already has a system in place that people were not using.

          But I didn'

          • Listen yourself. I am not your "buddy", and the arrogant and insulting tone of your use of that term is not acceptable.

            Tough. Welcome to the Internet, buddy. You think you can waggle your virtual finger at me and have any effect at all? Think again. Hell, I doubt you could do that in person and have any effect except to get laughed at by me.

            • Tough. Welcome to the Internet, buddy. You think you can waggle your virtual finger at me and have any effect at all?

              I pointed out your rude form of address; what you do with that information is up to you. And no, I've read enough of your stuff to know that you simply don't care about being civil, so I expected a rude and arrogant response.

              I also expected you to use that one side issue to glibly ignore the point I was making about your "virtual finger waggling" at Facebook. You did not disappoint.

  • This is mainly done through a secretive operation in Kuala Lumpur that’s outsourced to Accenture, the professional services firm, and codenamed “Project Honey Badger.”

    We all know Honey Badger don't give a shit.

  • At least we got rid of Alex Jones though.

  • When actually, the Muslim are usually the aggressors.

    Leftist media will always side with the Muslims - because all white Christian males are pure evil - Just ask Sarah Jeong.

    “Moderate” Indonesia: Woman who complained about noise from a mosque’s loudspeakers charged with blasphemy, faces prison sentence. 14 Buddhist temples ransacked and burned in retaliation. It’s lucky Islam is so peaceful. Imagine the carnage if it wasn’t.

    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/indonesia-woman-irked-mosque

    • Media difference. (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Christians: conservatives liberals hate

      Muslims: conservatives liberals love

    • Precisely! The same people who are willing to believe Christians or Jews in the West - be it America, Europe or Israel - are somehow willing to believe that the Muslims are the victims in places like ex-Yugoslavia (Bosnia & Kosovo), Burma and India.

      On Twitter, Burmese posters have posted pictures of Burmese citizens - both Buddhist and Hindu, not Muslim - who had been beheaded by Muslim rebels in Rankhine. Nobody in the West bothers about that. They're only interested in the Muslim propaganda about

  • Funny how we never get Slashdot stories... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ...about hate speech by Muslim groups in the Middle East and ethnic cleansing against Christians.

    Why is that?

    • ...about hate speech by Muslim groups in the Middle East and ethnic cleansing against Christians.

      Why is that?

      Probably because Muslims are more often the victim than the perpetrator. There's a lot of countries in Africa too where xians are performing ethnic cleansing on Muslim populations. Of course, that doesn't go along with the mindset some people have of "xian good" "Muslim bad".

      Xianity has a long history of ethnic cleansing, slavery and persecution of others. That doesn't make Christians or Christianity necessarily bad... it just means there are bad people of all religions.

      • Probably because Muslims are more often the victim than the perpetrator. There's a lot of countries in Africa too where xians are performing ethnic cleansing on Muslim populations.

        You might want to research. The west practices tolerance, but in areas that are majority Muslim, not so much.

        Here, you can find a list of countries that allow the DEATH PENALTY for apostasy and blasphemy. You will never guess the dominant religion for most of them... http://www.pewresearch.org/fac... [pewresearch.org]

        Well, "blasphemy" laws can be applied to pretty much anybody that you disagree with. In Pakistan, a Christian woman was pretty much railroaded and sentenced to death, despite the lack of any actual evidence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

        One telling quote (from the article):

        In December 2010, a month after Noreen's conviction, a Muslim cleric announced a 500,000 Pakistani rupee award (the equivalent of $10,000)[7] to anyone who would kill her. One survey reported that around 10 million Pakistanis had said that they would be willing to personally kill her out of either religious conviction or for the reward.

        Also, even if you DON'T actually commit blasphemy, here is a list of 13 countries where begin an Atheist can get you killed. You get three guesses about the dominant religion for 12 of these countries (the 13th country, Nigeria, is evenly divided between Christian and Islam). Yes, being the wrong religion (or lack thereof) is LEGAL grounds for execution. https://www.theatlantic.com/in... [theatlantic.com]

        Another page with a similar map: https://www.indy100.com/articl... [indy100.com]

        But as to who is the VICTIM of persecution, I will leave this article (cliff notes: Christians). The source data appears to be Pew (who is generally regarded as unbiased), but you can analyze the data for skew yourself.

        https://www.express.co.uk/news... [express.co.uk]

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by reanjr ( 588767 )

          And in the United States, police can execute you without a trial just for being black. For perspective, there are more black men executed by American police than there are atheists being executed in Muslim countries.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by harrkev ( 623093 )

            And in the United States, police can execute you without a trial just for being black.

            And am I supposed to just believe some stranger on the Intertubes? Sorry, but I need a bit more proof.

            But, to actually address your claim, false. We have LAWS. The "execution" of an unarmed person is completely illegal if they are not attacking anybody. While it is true that some people may have gotten away with this, the increasing use of cameras worn by police officers should be reducing this type of activity. If a

          • > And in the United States, police can execute you without a trial just for being black.

            Are you lying or just amazingly ignorant?

            Blacks kill other blacks *far* more than police kill blacks. When police kill blacks, it's usually justified, if it's not justified, the police are prosecuted.

        • Express is hardly biased; it's well known as a right wing newspaper based in a country where right wing usually means Xian.

          In the last 100 years- Muslims have faced widespread persecution from Christians (and others- but mostly Christians) in:

          Greece, Russia, Armenia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Parts of Turkey and Albania, Cambodia, China, India, Algeria, Japan, Libya (from Italians), Lebanon, Myanmar, Philippines, Kazackhstan, Tartarstan, Vietnam, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, Eastern Turkestan, Tibet

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by harrkev ( 623093 )

            I must admit that I know nothing about "The Express." However, I did a little "Google" magic and found this...

            http://www.pewresearch.org/fac... [pewresearch.org]

            Please don't try to tell me that Pew is "right wing."

            However, this IS a thorny issue. "Persecution" has many levels, from simple name-calling all the way to death. So a person who is shunned for their religion is not the same as a person killed for their religion. As I mentioned in the grandparent post, Islam is most likely to kill you for religious violations.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Cederic ( 9623 )

            The Express is right wing in the same way that half the country is right wing: in favour of good fiscal management and kind of likes British values.

            In the last 100 years christians have faced persecution in Russia, Aermenia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Alabania, Algeria, Libya, Lebanon and all over Africa too. Maybe the issue is the political systems in those countries during that period?

            Perhaps all religions are shitty and people should stop believing in invisible pink unicorns.

            But what is a xian? I

            • Religions are neither good nor bad in my opinion. They are religions.

              People use their religions for good reasons or bad reasons. Doesn't matter the religion, there is good and bad in both. People are evil and people are good. Religions are just beliefs, and most are ambiguous enough to be applied to either side of many arguments.

              "X" is an abbreviation widely used for over a thousand years as a shorthand for the word "Christ"- first use was by Christian monks who presumably got tired of writing out the f

  • First: (Score:4, Interesting)

    by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2018 @02:27PM (#57132352) Journal
    Define "hate speech".
    • From the article:

      “Cut off those necks of the sons of the dog and kick them into the water”... One Buddhist nationalist group set up a page called the “Kalar Beheading Gang.”

      A third user shared a blog item that pictures a boatload of Rohingya refugees landing in Indonesia. “Pour fuel and set fire so that they can meet Allah faster,” a commenter wrote.

      One user posted a restaurant advertisement featuring Rohingya-style food. “We must fight them the way Hitler did the Jews, damn kalars!” the person wrote, using a pejorative for the Rohingya.

      Direct calls for beheading people, immolating refugees of a particular race, and genocide against a specific people group would be considered hate speech and incitement by most people. We're not simply talking about expelling them, people are calling for the outright deaths of an entire people group within their borders.

      • So everyone that has called for the assassination of President Trump has committed hate speech? Someone should warn PopeRatzo around here that his statements about punching and beating Nazis is hate speech.

    • Damn; well said.

      If this keeps up, we may even have to take you off "broken clock" status...

  • Why not... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ...mention the Rohingya massacre of Hindus in Myanmar? The dhimmitude is disgusting.

  • What bugs me the most . . . (Score:5, Informative)

    by sgt_doom ( 655561 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2018 @03:33PM (#57132866)
    Not that I am unsympathetic to the slaughter of muslims in Myanmar and the destruction of their homes their, but there has been a lengthy genocide against the (mostly Christian) Kachin people in that country, and there is little reporting about it, most definitely NOT in Amerika.

    https://www.theguardian.com/wo... [theguardian.com]

  • Facebook can do it... (Score:3)

    by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2018 @03:54PM (#57132998)
    ... they just can't do it profitably. If they had to pay people with brains to scour their network to keep it shit-free, they wouldn't be profitable. They can only be wildly profitable by not actively managing their network.

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