Rohingya displaced persons (DPs) from Myanmar have brought a lawsuit against Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms Inc., amounting to $150 billion over accusations that the social networking giant was inactive in preventing abuses directed against the Rohingya which resulted in atrocities.
According to Reuters, the lawsuit maintains that the corporation was not successful in monitoring abusive material directed towards inflicting violence on the Rohingyas.
Facebook did not comment about the lawsuit. It has stated that it actually acted forcefully to rein in hate speech on its forum, including prohibiting the army from its two major social media platforms after the military regime seized power in February.
The Rohingya refugee crisis was created in 2015 when thousands of Rohingyas were compelled to become refugees in the Rakhine state of Myanmar because of sectarian conflict. A few escaped to Bangladesh, which borders Myanmar, while the majority went to Southeastern states like Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand using rundown boats through the Malacca Straits, Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, half a million refugees fled via boats in the period January-March 2015 with the aid of human traffickers. It is claimed that en route to the safe havens, approximately a hundred refugees perished in Indonesia, two hundred in Malaysia, and ten in Thailand after the smugglers left them at sea.
More recently, approximately 750,000 Rohingya people escaped the Rakhine state in August 2017 after an army clampdown, which according to the DPs, included mass murder and sexual violence. These casualties and scorched earth tactics have been verified by rights organizations.
The Myanmar government claims that they were fighting a rebellion and refute the charge that it conducted organized violence.
