2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(1) denationalised. As this article highlights below, the resultant domestic discourse inspired state-sponsored hate speech (well before the ‘clearance operation’ took place), both online and offline. Once hate speech was legitimised, the Rohingya were persecuted and eventually subject to ethnic cleansing in the twenty-first century. 63 The international community has been following the ongoing abuses against the Rohingya in Myanmar and have adopted a number of human rights resolutions. 64 The affirmations have been received with a lack of cooperation on the part of the government of Myanmar, and relatively little has been achieved by the international community to save the Rohingya from mass severe human rights violation. 65 A report from the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (‘the Mission’) found that hate speech against the Rohingya played a pivotal and ongoing role in discrimination against the Rohingya. Online hate speech continues to be disseminated on social media platforms, especially on Facebook, 66 used as a means to incite violence against the Rohingya. 67 The Mission reported on heightened tension immediately before the launch of the ‘clearance operation’ of 25 August 2017. It noted the increase in Myanmar media attention on the activity of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and commented on the ongoing state-sponsored hate-speech towards the Rohingya. 68 At the peak of the Rohingya crisis, Facebook was heavily criticised for not employing any Burmese-speakers who would have been able to detect and remove hate speech related content from Facebook and to moderate some of the discussions in Burmese, despite applying various tools for content moderation, including editorial review, automatic detection and community flagging). 69 It is important to point out that for many people in this emerging economy, Facebook is the primary website they use to connect and get information. In its report published in 2018 the Mission also suggested that Facebook had been used to facilitate the spread of hate speech online that may have contributed to the escalation of violence against the Rohingyas in Myanmar. 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 ‘Myanmar’s Rohingya Persecuted, Living under Threat of Genocide, UN Experts Say’ (Press Release, 16 September 2019) <https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24991&LangI D=E>; ‘“Ethnic Cleansing” of Myanmar’s Rohingya Continues: UN’ Bangkok Post (online, 6 March 2018) <https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1423338/ethnic-cleansing-ofmyanmars-rohingya-continues-un>. See, eg, Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/34/22 (3 April 2017); Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, UN Doc A/C.3/73/L.51 (31 October 2018); Situation of Human Rights of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/39/2 (3 October 2018); IIFFM Report Myanmar 2019 (n 60); Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, UN Doc A/C.3/72/L.48 (31 October 2017). In 2017 the Government of Myanmar declared not to cooperate with the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, nor with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. Whereas Facebook removed such pages, unofficial pages supporting hate speech against the Rohingya remain active. See IIFFM Report Myanmar 2019 (n 60) 12 [72]. See Billy Perrigo, ‘Facebook Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar: A New Report on Hate Speech Shows It Hasn’t Learned Enough Since Then’, Time (online, 29 August 2019) <eahttps://time.com/5712366/facebook-hate-speech-violence/>. IIFFM Report Myanmar 2018 (n 59). See Michael Safi, ‘Revealed: Facebook Hate Speech Exploded in Myanmar during Rohingya Crisis’, The Guardian (online, 3 April 2018) <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/03/revealed-facebook-hate-speechexploded-in-myanmar-during-rohingya-crisis>; Tom Miles, ‘UN Investigators Cite Facebook Role in Myanmar Crisis’, Reuters (online, 12 March 2018) <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-facebook/u-n-investigators-citefacebook-role-in-myanmar-crisis-idUSKCN1GO2PN>. 16