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Actually, yes, large companies often interfere in foreign governments' affairs. For a good recent example involving Facebook, consider the situation in Myanmar.
by myWindoonn 6y ago
Actually, yes, large companies often interfere in foreign governments' affairs. For a good recent example involving Facebook, consider the situation in Myanmar. Eric Schmidt, a revolving-door executive who connected Google/Alphabet to the federal government, went to Myanmar in 2013 as they were transitioning from a junta to a democracy [0] in order to advocate that they adopt free and open Internet access [3]. That year, Myanmar allowed foreign telecommunications companies to operate, dropping the price of SIM cards by a hundredfold [1]. Facebook went live in Myanmar that year too, and enabled the junta to start spreading racist memes. Violence started to spread, and by 2016, an ongoing government-supported genocide of the Rohingya had started [2].
I am not saying that tech companies desired a genocide, but I am saying that their policies, platforms, and interference in foreign affairs are complicit in genocide.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E2%80%932015_Myanmar_political_reforms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E2%80%932015_Myanmar_poli...
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-45449938 https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-45449938
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_genocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_genocide
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt#Advocating_open_Internet_use_in_Myanmar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt#Advocating_open_I...