Online hate speech: FB must compensate Rohingyas: Amnesty

Facebook should pay reparations to the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya forced from their homes in Myanmar in a campaign exacerbated by rampant online hate speech, Amnesty International said yesterday. The Rohingya, a mainly Muslim minority, were targeted by Myanmar's military rulers in 2017 and driven into neighbouring Bangladesh, where they have since lived in sprawling refugee camps. Victims' associations and rights advocates argue the violence was ramped up by Facebook's algorithms, saying they play up extremist content that encourages harmful disinformation and hate speech. "Many Rohingya tried to report anti-Rohingya content via Facebook's 'report' function" but to no avail, "allowing these hateful narratives to proliferate and reach unprecedented audiences in Myanmar," Amnesty said in its report.