On December 6th, the British law firm, Mishcon de Reya, announced the start of “coordinated legal actions on behalf of victims and survivors of the Rohynga genocide.” The actions were filed in the U.K. and U.S., alleging that “Facebook’s negligence encouraged and facilitated the genocide carried out by the Myanmar regime and its extremist supporters against the Rohingya people, a Muslim minority in Myanmar.” In the U.K., the lawyers gave Facebook formal notice of their intention to initiate proceedings on behalf of non-U.S. resident Rohingya survivors around the world. In the U.S., a separate claim was filed on behalf of the Rohingya community, who are residents. 

The Guardian reports the claim to be that “Facebook’s negligence facilitated the genocide” after its “algorithms amplified hate speech and the platform failed to take down inflammatory posts.” It claims that the allegations against Facebook include algorithms that “amplified hate speech against the Rohingya people.” Facebook allegedly failed to invest in local moderators and fact checkers, and did not “take down specific posts inciting violence against Rohingya people.” It also failed to “shut down specific accounts or delete groups and pages that were encouraging ethnic violence.” The value of the claims exceeds $150 billion, according to Al Jazeera.

In the U.S., the class action complaint says that Facebook was “willing to trade the lives of the Rohingya people for better market penetration in a small country in south-east Asia.” Similarly, a letter submitted by lawyers to Facebook’s U.K. office says clients and their family members have been subjected to acts of “serious violence, murder and/or other grave human rights abuses.” Additionally, the social network played a crucial role in facilitating the genocide perpetrated by the Myanmar regime and extremist civilians against the Rohingya people.

In 2018, Facebook admitted that it did not do enough to prevent the incitement of violence and hate speech against the Rohingya, according to the BBC. At the time, an independent report commissioned by the company found that “Facebook has become a means for those seeking to spread hate and cause harm, and posts have been linked to offline violence.” In fact, a former member of Facebook’s Integrity team recently acknowledged that by working for Facebook, he was “a party to genocide.” In the same year, United Nations human rights investigators also said the use of Facebook played a key role in spreading hate speech that fueled the violence. A Reuters investigation in 2018, found more than 1,000 examples of posts, comments and images attacking the Rohingya and other Muslims on Facebook.

Yet, human rights groups continue to demand more action from the “social media giant,” arguing that Facebook is not doing enough to prevent the spread of disinformation and misinformation online. In fact, the human rights groups claim that even when Facebook was alerted to hate speech on its platform, the company failed to act. Moreover, according to Mishcon de Reya, “despite Facebook’s recognition of its culpability and its pronouncements about its role in the world, there has not been a single penny of compensation, nor any other form of reparations or support, offered to any survivor.” Perhaps this new fight will give claimants and other survivors new hope for justice and recognition. But perhaps, it will also demonstrate the uncontrolled and disturbing power social networks have to start and incite conflict and war, producing a necessary chance in how we allow them to influence and manipulate people’s lives.