
A Genocide Incited on Facebook, With Posts From Myanmar’s Military - anigbrowl
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html
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pjc50
As in previous threads on this, I'd like to remind people of the role of radio
stations in the Rwandan genocide:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_T%C3%A9l%C3%A9vision_Lib...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_T%C3%A9l%C3%A9vision_Libre_des_Mille_Collines)

These and other tragedies lie in the past. We would do well to look for the
warning signs of these in the future: what media organisations are publishing
propaganda about ethnic minorities? What incitement to and tacit endorsement
of violence is currently being broadcast or circulated on Facebook and other
places?

~~~
sehugg
Not just endorsement of violence, but organizing it:
[https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/08/02/facebooks-
fig...](https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/08/02/facebooks-fight-club-
how-proud-boys-use-social-media-platform-vet-their-fighters)

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Const-me
Russians do similar stuff, the most famous case is probably this:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucified_Boy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucified_Boy)

They incited war this way, still ongoing.

~~~
bilbo0s
Serious question.

Why is there so much "whataboutism" whenever anyone brings up these issues?

Sure Russia has rights violations.

China has censorship and Uighurs.

The US has all kinds of toddlers in internment camps.

Etc etc etc. Lots of bad things happening in lots of other places.

But right now we're talking about the number they're doing on the Rohingya.
Sheez.

If you want to talk about Russia, or Brazilian death squads, or immigrant
toddlers, or whatever submit a link and we can talk about it.

~~~
grecy
You question is valid, ignore the downvotes.

I think it comes about as a way for people to "explain away" or "brush off"
things that happen in our modern world that we are just too
lazy/busy/preoccupied or otherwise can't be bothered to fix.

It doesn't really matter what the thing that happens is, someone will always
chime in with "yeah, that's just like when xyz happened" \- which is a
completely useless thing to say, but I think it helps people feel better that
the world is not utter chaos, and things are not entirely isolated or have no
precedent.

Of course, as you say, it would be much more productive to spend time trying
to solve or eliminate said things, but gossip and media and reality TV aren't
about that.

~~~
toyg
No, it’s that human rights have long been used as instruments of aggressive
foreign policy by some countries; so now, when issues are raised, there is an
instinctive reaction from some quarters that basically means “oh no, you will
not use that to bully Country X, because you are no saint either”.

It’s the diplomatic equivalent of “Why do you see the speck in your brother’s
eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own?”

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bigbluedots
The only way to combat propaganda and 'fake news' is for its audience to apply
some critical thinking. As far as I'm aware the Internet in Myanmar is not
restricted/censored, so people there have every opportunity to check facts -
that they do not appear to may be a symptom of Internet access being such a
new phenomenon there.

~~~
sohex
While Myanmar no longer has a restricted internet enforced via firewall that's
a relatively recent development, only having changed in 2011. There isn't
official state censorship at this point in time, however there is still a
large degree of self-censorship occurring due to concerns over being jailed or
otherwise penalized for voicing a dissident opinion online. Freedom House has
a more comprehensive report on the state of internet there available here
[https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-
net/2017/myanmar](https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2017/myanmar)

The current state of affairs is such that only those voices that conform to
the government's official narrative will be heard and promoted while those
that do exercise critical thought can't verbalize it online without fear of
violence and intimidation.

------
joonaa
I don't get how Mark can live with the monster he has created. He made
billions from this, why doesn't he retire and move to a desert island with his
wealth. From there he can start to work on an open protocol alternative to FB.

~~~
bilbo0s
Even if he did, Facebook doesn't go away. It's here to stay now.

If you're dining with Satan, you can't decline dessert. You have to eat
everything Satan prepares for the evening. You can _try_ to run away, but I'm
not sure you would get very far.

~~~
dmos62
Are you conciously victimizing Facebook's leadership?

It makes money, but it has a net negative social effect. Do we, as a society,
stigmatize, or at least not encourage greed? We don't. So you might as well
say that these people are not the victims of the mythical, absolute evil, aka
the devil; they're victims of our conflicted sense of value.

~~~
Spooky23
It's easy to pin evil on Facebook because of the company's arrogance. It's
arrogance that ultimately negative impacts the value of the firm.

They look at growth as the only metric that matters and as a result have a
vacuum in governance and practice. They appear to not fundamentally now
respect the userbase, and have not appeared to seriously consider the conduct
of partners on the platform in the past.

Anyone of the age of the Facebook leadership should have always understood how
online forums work. Anyone who used Slashdot in the old days understood
moderation, trolls, etc.

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aptidude187
Interesting how people were 'outraged' about 1 missing Journalist and flooded
HN with articles about how evil the government of Saudi Arabia is ( which I
agree with ) , but a more serious crime like genocide leaves HN disinterested.
Would this be the same, if the perpetrators and victims were reversed ? I
highly doubt it.

~~~
realusername
We had a lot of coverage of the Myanmar genocide facilitated by Facebook and
the comments were always very negative against Facebook here. You won't find
much sympathy of the company on HN.

~~~
krapp
>We had a lot of coverage of the Myanmar genocide facilitated by Facebook and
the comments were always very negative against Facebook here.

Not always. A surprising number of HN commenters in those threads supported
both Facebook and the genocide.

Either way, HN was anything but disinterested.

~~~
doktrin
> A surprising number of HN commenters in those threads supported both
> Facebook and the genocide.

I'm skeptical that there actually were non-grey comments in support of _the
genocide_

~~~
krapp
Every one of them probably wound up being downvoted and flagged, but that
doesn't require a majority of users. My point is that the sentiment was still
expressed, so it exists as a facet of HN culture.

You won't find many threads where Islam, Muslims or immigrants are mentioned
in which at least some anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant bias doesn't appear,
including this one.

~~~
jackvalentine
Which specific comments in this thread as it stands indicate anti-muslim or
anti-immigrant bias?

Edit: what did saana say that got them flagged out? Is this the one?

~~~
bilbo0s
The Saana comment was pretty far out there.

Yes. It's safe to say that comment had anti-muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-
minority bias.

There are many people like that in the world though. It's unreasonable to
require them to not exist before we discuss topics like this. In fact, in a
very real way, they are the entire reason we find ourselves needing to discuss
topics like this.

