Mapping Minorities’ Vulnerability to Hate Speech The Bengali population exploded and the aliens tried to seize the land of local ethnics. … Race cannot be swallowed by the ground but only by another race. All must be loyal to the State in serving their duties, so that such cases will never happen again. 70 This statement was posted on Facebook directly by a member of the Myanmar political hierarchy — the Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar, first Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on 21 September 2017. One year later, at the height of the ‘clearance operations’ on 2 September 2018, in yet another Facebook post, Aung Hlaing further suggested that the Bengali problem was a longstanding one which has become an unfinished job despite the efforts of the previous governments to solve it. The government in office is taking great care in solving the problem. 71 Considering the atrocities that followed the ‘clearance operations’, it may be assumed that such dehumanising messages coming from the Myanmar hierarchy could have served as a legitimising factor in the escalation of violence for nationalists to spread hateful posts building on the government’s proclaimed intention to ‘solve the problem’. Therefore, there may be a reason to suspect that not removing similar harmful content from Facebook — coming from prominent public figures in Myanmar — might have played a key role in facilitating and amplifying the incitement of violence against the Rohingyas. The report introduced by the Mission stated that: The mission is deeply disturbed by the prevalence of hate speech, offline and online, often including advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred constituting incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. This has accompanied outbreaks of violence, especially in Rakhine State. Dehumanising and stigmatising language against the Rohingya, and Muslims in general, has for many years been a key component of the campaign to ‘protect race and religion’, spearheaded by extremist Buddhist groups like MaBaTha. 72 The report emphasises the key role of social media, especially Facebook which has been used as a tool to spread hate, in a context where, for most users, Facebook is the entire internet. 73 Acknowledging the improvements made by Facebook, the report suggests that the response of Facebook was slow and ineffective, expressing regret that Facebook was unable to provide country-specific data about the spread of hate speech on its platform. 74 The hearing of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in front of the United States Senate that took place in April 2018 concerned a number of issues related to the sharing of personal data and misinformation, but also touched upon Facebook’s responsibility in providing a platform to incite violence in Myanmar. In his response to Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, Zuckerberg said that ‘[w]hat’s happening in Myanmar is a terrible tragedy, and we need to do more’, admitting that Facebook mostly relies on artificial intelligence to identify hate speech and 70 71 72 73 74 IIFFM Report Myanmar 2018 (n 68) 14, quoting Min Aung Hlaing, ‘Gallant Efforts to Defend the HQ against Terrorist Attacks and Brilliant Efforts to Restore Regional Peace, Security Are Honoured’ (Facebook Post, 21 September 2017) (Deleted). IIFFM Report Myanmar 2018 (n 68) [35], quoting Min Aung Hlaing (Facebook Post, 2 September 2018) (Deleted). ibid 14 [73]. ibid 14 [74]. ibid. 17