About the company
Facebook is American company specialising in social media. It has consistently allowed its platform to be used to incite hatred and violence of minorities in Burma, in particular the Rohingya Muslim minority and Muslims in general. Numerous complaints were ignored by the company. Although it has belatedly closed down accounts run by the Burmese military, it continues to host the page of the Information Committee, formerly State Counsellor Information Committee, which is run from Aung San Suu Kyi’s office. Since 2016 this was one of the main official government/military pages on Facebook used for inciting fear and hatred of the Rohingya, including the notorious ‘Fake Rape’ poster denying that independently verified claims of rape of Rohingya women by the Burmese military are true.
Facebook also hosts more than 25 Burmese military linked Facebook Pages on its site.
The Pages are either run by the military, or by military-owned or controlled companies, or exactly reproduce military propaganda but may not be directly run by the military. The Myanmar Air Force Facebook Page even has a blue tick showing it has been verified by Facebook.
Facebook have been severely criticised by civil society in Burma, and by the United Nations, for their lack of action in addressing hate speech. Although they have now taken some steps to address this, the United Nations Fact Finding Mission has asked them to do more, including commissioning an independent examination of what has taken place on their platform.
Contact:
Mark Zuckerberg
Chairman and Chief Executive
Facebook
1 Hacker Way
Menlo Park
California 94025
USA
Sources:
State Counsellor Information Committee Facebook Page 26th December 2016
https://www.facebook.com/InfomationCommittee/posts/660387290801047?__tn__=K-R
Twitter post, Timothy McLaughlin, 22nd November 2018
https://twitter.com/TMclaughlin3/status/1065418403567984646
United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar 18th September 2018
https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/myanmarffm/pages/index.aspx
Burma Campaign UK Press Release listing Facebook military pages
25 February 2021
Partial Ban on Military Facebook Pages Welcomed by Burma Campaign UK
Notified 30th November 2018
Added to the Dirty List 11 December 2018
The Dirty List
The Dirty List names international companies doing business with the military in Burma. The list also includes international companies involved in projects where there are human rights violations or environmental destruction.
In September 2018, the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar, which has been investigating human rights violations in the country, stated:
“The actions of the Tatmadaw (Burmese military) in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan States, in particular in the context of the ‘clearance operations’ in northern Rakhine State in 2016 and 2017, have so seriously violated international law that any engagement in any form with the Tatmadaw, its current leadership, and its businesses, is indefensible.”
A PDF of the full Dirty List is available here.