A Case Study on Doe v. Meta; Facebook's Impunity for Inciting Genocide against the Rohingya Minorities

Author: Tabassum Islam Tamanna

Field of Study: Masters of Science in Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention

Faculty Mentors: Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm

Easel: 96

Timeslot: Morning

Abstract: Doe v. Meta is an unprecedented class action lawsuit that was filed to hold Facebook (Meta) responsible for indemnifying the Rohingya Muslim minority for its fostering of ethnic atrocities in Myanmar. It was noted that Facebook's main business strategy, behavioral advertisements, contributed to the 2017 Rohingya atrocities by escalating the conflict at large. In 2018, the United Nations human rights inspectors warned that Facebook was encouraging hate speech and violent attacks against Myanmar's Muslim minorities. In one of their studies, Amnesty International added that content that incited violence, racism, and prejudice against the Rohingyas was deliberately amplified and pushed on Facebook by Meta's tracking-based business model, which it claims still feeds off provocative, conflictual, and damaging content. Therefore, the main focus of this paper will be on social media's impunity and how Meta promoted anti-Rohingya content and how Facebook's seeming incapacity to control online hate speech and misinformation has led to a genocide.