The Grimshaw Review of International Affairs Vol. 2, No. 1
Social media platforms, notably Facebook, have demonstrated both their destructive and
constructive potential throughout the crisis. As to the former, in 2017, the Burmese military
and Buddhist nationalists weaponised Facebook to spread anti-Rohingya hate, with over
1,000 posts inciting violence. Additionally, Facebook systematically removed pro-Rohingya
content and disabled activist accounts, silencing voices of resistance. This damaging role of
social media reflects what Morozov (2012) termed the “dark side” of the internet, where
technology appears to be a medium for advocacy but ends up propagating genocidal rhetoric
(Aziz, 2024, p. 5221).
At the same time however, Rohingya advocacy networks, NGOs, and the Rohingya
themselves have increasingly utilised digital platforms to amplify their voices and mobilise
transnational support. Organisations such as the Free Rohingya Coalition, European
Rohingya Council, and Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights have used
Facebook, Twitter/X, and YouTube to share updates from camps, document human rights
abuses, and push for legal action, including bringing the “Rohingya Genocide Case” to the
International Court of Justice (Aziz, 2024, p. 5227-5228). As such, these networks
demonstrate how diasporic communities leverage digital tools to resist oppressive narratives
set by the Burmese national government and military junta, build solidarity, and assert their
identities in transnational spaces (Cottle and Lester, 2011; Khazraee and Novak, 2018; cited
in Aziz, 2024, 5223).
Indeed, the emergence of social media has transformed the nature of advocacy and
communication, enabling horizontal networks that connect local and global audiences in real
time. As Castells (2007, p. 249) argues, technology is not merely a tool but a medium that
facilitates the autonomy of social movements, allowing them to confront institutional power
on their own terms. This transformation is exemplified by an increase in citizen-generated
content, such as demonstrations by Buddhist monks in Myanmar in 2007, which bypassed
traditional gatekeeping mechanisms and allowed global audiences to witness spectacles of
violence that mainstream media might have otherwise ignored (Gillmor, 2004; Cooper, 2007;
Chouliaraki, 2008, p. 330-331). Similarly, platforms like Twitter/X have amplified such
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