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Article

5 Nov 2018

Author:
Paresh Dave, The New York Times

Facebook says human rights report shows it should do more in Myanmar

Facebook Inc on Monday said a human rights report it commissioned on its presence in Myanmar showed it had not done enough to prevent its social network from being used to incite violence... The report... recommended that Facebook more strictly enforce its content policies, increase engagement with both Myanmar officials and civil society groups and regularly release additional data about its progress in the country. “The report concludes that, prior to this year, we weren’t doing enough to help prevent our platform from being used to foment division and incite offline violence. We agree that we can and should do more,” Alex Warofka, a Facebook product policy manager, said in a blog post... BSR also warned that Facebook must be prepared to handle a likely onslaught of misinformation during Myanmar’s 2020 elections... A Reuters special report here in August found that Facebook failed to promptly heed numerous warnings from organizations in Myanmar about social media posts fueling attacks on minority groups such as the Rohingya... Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Asia said the report showed Facebook is working hard to address the issues and should step up its efforts... “It’s often said that in Myanmar, for all intents and purposes Facebook really is the Internet because of its widespread use among online users — so Facebook needs to act accordingly to head off what will likely be a tsunami of hate speech and attacks in the 2020 election,” said Phil Roberston, HRW deputy director.

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