[ad_1]
After not stopping the hate speech and its misinformation he incited a genocide In Myanmar, Facebook now says it intends to take proactive steps to moderate content after the ongoing military coup in the country.
In an internal message published Monday night and viewed by BuzzFeed News, Rafael Frankel, director of public policy for the Asia-Pacific region, told workers he was seeing social media in Myanmar’s “serious situation” with “serious concern” and dealing with people who used to spread misinformation or threaten violence. he specified certain measures.
As part of these measures, Facebook has designated Myanmar as a “Temporary High-Risk Location” for two weeks, which will allow the company to remove content and events from the country that include “calls to bring weapons”. The designation previously applied to social media in Washington, DC, following the January 6 uprising in the U.S. Capitol.
The social network, which made an effort to protect the integrity of Myanmar’s national elections in November, also said it would support publications criticizing the military and its coup, and would follow reports of pages and accounts hacked or taken by the military. .
“Myanmar’s November elections were an important moment in the country’s transition to democracy, even if it did not lack its challenges, as highlighted by international human rights groups,” Frankel wrote. “This turn of events reminds us of the days we had hoped for in Myanmar’s past and reminds us of the basic rights that should never be given.”
Facebook’s move by General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s army chief, took control of the country’s government and on Monday arrested elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of his National League of Democracy (NLD) party. After the election The NLD won most of the seats In the Myanmar parliament, military-backed opposition groups called the results fraudulent and called for reconsideration.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of State officially appointed the military staged a coup in Myanmar, resulting in financial sanctions.
“After reviewing all the facts, we assessed the actions taken by the Burmese military on February 1, the removal of the duly elected head of government, as a military coup,” a State Department official said in a statement, the name used by the U.S. government to name the country.
In a statement to Facebook on BuzzFeed News, Facebook confirmed the actions it described in Frankel’s post and said it would remove content that praises or supports the coup.
“We are putting the safety of the people of Myanmar first and we are removing content that violates our rules on violence, hate speech and harmful misinformation,” Frankel said. “This leads to the removal of misinformation that delegitimizes the outcome of the November election.”
Facebook is taking action in 2016 to face international displacement and genocide of Rohingya Muslims who have suffered international condemnation. In 2018, United Nations researchers found that Myanmar’s top military officials used Facebook as the moderator of content in the country. to encourage fear and spread hate speech.
UN researchers conclude that “the extent to which Facebook posts and messages have caused real discrimination must be investigated independently and in depth.” their report.
In Monday’s message, Frankel said Facebook was “using various product interventions that were used in the Myanmar and U.S. elections in the past, not to use the platform to spread misinformation, encourage violence, or coordinate harm.”
The company is securing the accounts of activists and journalists who are “at risk or arrested” and removing content that threatens or demands violence against them, Frankel wrote. The company will also support “critical information about what’s happening on the ground,” given the restrictions imposed on the country’s news outlets.
Facebook’s work is a constant effort. He removed a page from Myanmar’s military television network on Tuesday night after questioning Wall Street Journal. While the company banned a page for the Myawaddy TV network in 2018 in a repression In hundreds of accounts related to the Myanmar military, a new page appeared again and garnered 33,000 likes.
Facebook has often caught fire for facilitating its effectiveness in preventing the growth and disinformation of violent and extremist groups. Recently, a group of tech watchdogs complained that the company had promoted unrest that led to a deadly coup attempt in the United States.
“[Facebook] last year did not dispel conspiracy theories linked to extremist activities and elections promoted by President Trump, which radicalized a large population and led many to take a dangerous path, ”Tech Transparency Project (TTP) he said in a report.
The report highlighted specific threats made by Facebook and militant groups on Facebook before and after Joe Biden’s election victory in November.
[ad_2]
Source link
