2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(1) groups faced criminal prosecution for their misconduct, no case has been adjudged by a court to be an act of racial discrimination, which implies a sense of impunity that has contributed to the harmful persistence of legitimised hate speech and violence against them. 49 Regrettably, the Government of Japan has strengthened institutionalised discrimination against ethnic Koreans by not taking any concrete action against the perpetrators and, thus, potentially legitimising discrimination against ethnic Koreans in racist groups and individuals through inaction. 50 While there was a lack of anti-hate speech laws until 2016 when Japan passed its Act on the Promotion of Efforts to Eliminate Unfair Discriminatory Speech and Behavior against Persons Originating from outside Japan, 51 anti-racist protesters vocally condemned hate speech against Koreans on numerous occasions. 52 At the time, there may have also been a lack of understanding of the hate speech context and how it interferes with human rights standards — the government might have also found it difficult to respond to the new challenges posed by hate speech spread in the online space. Nonetheless, the root causes and hideous nature of hate speech spread against the ethnic Koreans in Japan in the early 2010s provides us with an important background on the recent and ongoing incidents of hate speech targeting minorities spreading on the internet. As this article is being written, there is now a realm of tools and policies that can assist state actors and decision-makers to tackle hate speech that is spread online. This incident revealed that putting in place and duly implementing anti-hate speech laws, carrying out capacity-building of law enforcement actors on hate crimes and bringing perpetrators to justice are essential elements of addressing hate crimes against minorities both online and offline. V HATE SPEECH AGAINST THE STATELESS ROHINGYA FACILITATED BY FACEBOOK: LESSONS LEARNED? The Rohingya are a stateless Indo–Aryan ethnic group who mostly follow Islam religion, but also include a minority group that practice Hinduism, and reside in Rakhine State in Myanmar where most citizens are otherwise Buddhist. There, Rohingya are often considered to be ‘Bengalis’ from neighbouring Bangladesh although their families have lived in the country for generations. 53 The Rohingya constitute the largest stateless minority group in Myanmar, and were repeatedly forced to leave their home country in the past years due to persecution as an ethnic and religious (Muslim) minority group and various forms of human rights 49 50 51 52 53 Ayako Hatano, ‘Can Strategic Human Rights Litigation Complement Social Movements? A Case Study of the Movement against Racism and Hate Speech in Japan’ (2019) 14(2) University of Pennsylvania Asian Law Review 228, 242. Taisuke Komatsu (Oral Statement, 7th Session of the Forum on Minority Issues, 25 November 2014). The Act passed in 2016 presents important shortcomings, as it does not ban hate speech nor penalise the act of hate speech. See Honpōgai shusshinsha ni taisuru futō na sabetsuteki gendō no kaishō ni muketa torikumi ni kansuru hōritsu [The Act on the Promotion of Efforts to Eliminate Unfair Discriminatory Speech and Behavior against Persons Originating from Outside Japan] (Japan) Law No 68 of 2016 The Act’s official translation can be found at: <http://www.moj.go.jp/content/001199550.pdf>. See Ito (n 44) 442. Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury and Ranabir Samaddar, The Rohingyas in South Asia: People Without a State (Routledge 2018). 14