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Rohingya refugees sue Facebook for $150bn over failures that led to ‘real-world violence’

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are suing Facebook for $150 billion over the company’s alleged failure to prevent its platform from being used to incite violence against the minority group.

The class-action lawsuit was filed in the US on Monday by two law firms–Edelson PC and Fields PLLC–while British lawyers submitted a letter of notice to the company in London, Reuters reported

“The company’s failures to police content and its platform’s design contributed to real-world violence faced by the Rohingya community,” the complaint says. 

Social media companies enjoy strong protections from such legal action under a US law known as Section 230, which says online platforms are not legally liable for content posted by third parties. 

The complainants have said they will seek to apply Myanmar law if the US law is used as a defence, but there appears to be no precedent of a foreign law being used to successfully counter a Section 230 defence. 

On Thursday, 16 Rohingya youth representatives will file a separate complaint against Facebook to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental group that issues guidelines for multinational companies.

That complaint comes after the refugees tried unsuccessfully to secure “remedies” from the company in the form of funding for projects in camps in Bangladesh, where more than 900,000 Rohingya live in squalid conditions. 

“After more than a year of tense discussions with Facebook Human Rights Director Miranda Sissons and the  rejection of a modest request for the multi-billion dollar company to fund educational programs in the camps, the youth have decided to file an official complaint,” said a statement from Victim Advocates International, a group that is assisting the refugees.  

The complaint will be filed in Ireland, home to Facebook’s Global Operations office.

The complainants are asking Facebook to divert a small portion of its profits to supporting Rohingya refugees, to adjust its business model “through the lens of equity, human rights, and compassion” and to commit not only to financial reparations, but to a “culture change” aimed at preventing further abuses of the platform, the statement said.  

“We have decided to file a complaint… in the hope of starting a process that will allow us to reclaim our dignity, through demanding our right to a remedy, and to an education,” the refugees said in a joint statement. 

“We believe we are owed a remedy from Facebook,” they added. 

More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine State from August 2017 amid military-led mass killings, gang rape, and arson, in what rights groups and UN investigators said was part of a genocidal campaign against the group.

UN investigators said in 2018 that the use of Facebook played a key role in spreading hate speech that fueled the violence.     

Monday’s lawsuit references claims by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who leaked several thousand internal documents earlier this year that highlighted the company’s failure to take effective action against abusive content in countries where hate speech is considered likely to cause the most harm.

Facebook has previously admitted it was “too slow to prevent misinformation and hate” in Myanmar.

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