Eva Deschamps / December 7, 2021
Rohingya refugees filed a lawsuit Monday against Facebook and are seeking $150 billion in compensation from the social network, which they accuse of allowing hate messages targeting the ethnic minority to spread on its platform.
The complaint filed in a California court, where Facebook is headquartered, claims that algorithms used by the tech giant have promoted misinformation and extremist ideologies that have translated into violent acts in the real world.
Facebook is like a programmed robot with a single mission: to grow, the plaintiffs write.
The undeniable reality is that Facebook's growth, fueled by hatred, division and misinformation, has left hundreds of thousands of devastated Rohingya lives in its wake, the document, accessed by AFP, continues.
The undeniable reality is that Facebook's growth, fueled by hatred, division and misinformation, has left hundreds of thousands of devastated Rohingya lives in its wake, the document, accessed by AFP, continues.
Most of the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority, found refuge in Bangladesh beginning in 2017 after fleeing a violent crackdown in Buddhist-majority Burma, where they are considered illegal even though they have often been there for generations.
Human rights organizations have long criticized Facebook for not doing enough to combat misinformation and false information.
Some critics claim that even when the platform is alerted to hateful content, it does not act, which according to them leads to persecution of minorities and can even affect the outcome of some elections.