Activists documenting the alleged ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma are reportedly having their Facebook posts removed and their accounts suspended. Rohingya people who use Facebook to share information about attacks have called on the company to stop silencing them, the Daily Beast reports.
A mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims has sparked allegations of ethnic cleansing, with the UN’s High Commissioner of Human Rights calling the operations against them a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Attacks by Rohingya insurgents sparked a military response which forced more than 410,000 Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh as their villages were burned and hundreds were killed. While the government has blamed the Rohingya themselves, members of the persecuted minority have said soldiers and Buddhist mobs attacked them.
Mohammad Anwar, a Rohingya activist based in Kuala Lumpur, told the Daily Beast Facebook had repeatedly removed his posts about violence in Rakhine state, where most Rohingya people live. One of his posts reportedly showed military activity in Rakhine state, noting Burmese military helicopters were flying over Rohingya villages. The social media giant said they took it down because it “doesn’t follow the Facebook Community Standards.” Another removed post allegedly showed the Burmese army burning down a Rohingya hamlet. Laura Haigh, Amnesty International’s researcher for Burma, told the Daily Beast there appeared to be a targeted campaign to report Rohingya accounts to Facebook in order to have them shut down.
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/facebook-rohingya-muslim-wo…
