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There was a pre-existing prejudice towards muslims/rohinyga in Burma/myanmar by the dominant Buddhist population. As technology developed, specifically mobile p

There was a pre-existing prejudice towards muslims/rohinyga in Burma/myanmar by the dominant Buddhist population. As technology developed, specifically mobile phones, it became easier for anti-muslim voices in Myanmar to spread their message. Specific violent acts against Buddhists, such as rape/murder, were, without proper evidence, attributed to the Muslim minority, further stoking prejudice and hate toward the Muslim population. Facebook was warned on many occasions that users attributing the violence against Buddhists to Muslims was leading to calls for violence against the Muslim minority, with multiple meetings/discussions by Myanmar and western sources at Facebook hq itself, only for Facebook to not take any action but instead focus on increasing engagement in Myanmar regardless of the situation on the ground. Slippery slope ensues contributing to the death/genocide of potentially hundreds of thousands of Rohingya/Muslims in Myanmar. More evidence in part 2 which seems like hasn’t been posted yet.

v3ss0n 3y ago
- There was a pre-existing prejudice towards muslims/rohinyga in Burma/myanmar by the dominant Buddhist population. No , i am 40 years old and before Rohingya crisis we have no hate towards muslim but have to admit we don't even know Rohingya race exist at all . The general populace is very peaceful towards muslim . - it became easier for anti-muslim voices in Myanmar to spread their message. The anti-muslim voice are not from civlians , they are from Junta and Hardline Junta who lost power due to democratic transition and the Hardline Party called USDP . So it is political as evident now as their failure and lead to coup. - Facebook was warned on many occasions that users attributing the violence against Buddhists to Muslims was leading to calls for violence against the Muslim minority, with multiple meetings/discussions by Myanmar and western sources at Facebook hq itself, only for Facebook to not take any action but instead focus on increasing engagement . Deaths and killing are done by military junta , with and without uniform - to look like civilians and their sponsored grouped called MaBaTha .
- harmmonica 3y ago
  My apologies. I was just trying to summarize the op’s contention about what’s transpired with Facebook there. I have no reason to doubt what you say is mostly true, but do you think that some of the general Buddhist population, beyond the Junta/leadership/dictatorship, had anti-Muslim/Rohingya sentiment before Facebook was widely available and so it was those voices who were amplified when Facebook’s growth accelerated in the country? The primary person the article cites was a Buddhist monk from what I understand.
  - v3ss0n 3y ago
    Budhhism can be mainly catgeorized as follow - Theravada Buddhism - Mahayana Buddhism Those are original but in myanmar. - Real Buddhist Who actually practices meditation and dharma - Buddhist because of Ancestors - MaBaTha Nationaist Buddhist - All about nationalistom actually which is brain washed and organized by junta. - Nat Koe Buddhist , who is not after dharma , but follows rites , traditional spirit worshipping Those latter 2 sact are the ones recurited into MaBaTha That monk is a military planted spy especially for Rohingya crisis. He was pictured together with ex spy chief after coup.
- yorwba 3y ago
  > we don't even know Rohingya race exist at all It has been long-standing government policy to deny the existence of Rohingya as an ethnic group, claiming that they're immigrants from Bangladesh, in order to deny them citizenship; this being a manifestation of pre-existing prejudice towards Muslims/Rohingya by the dominant political groups, both military junta and democratically elected civilians. (Though I think attributing this to Buddhists in general is just as much a mistake as attributing a crime to Muslims in general.) So it's unsurprising if you hadn't heard anything negative about Rohingya, but maybe you heard something negative about ကုလား or some other moniker meant to deny them recognition. Aung San Suu Kyi herself famously refused to even utter the word "Rohingya" while defending her dear generals against the genocide accusations, so I don't think you can put blame only on the junta/USDP and absolve the NLD from all responsiblity. Recently, the NUG has started making noise about finally reforming the citizenship law, so maybe the situation will improve in the future, but I could also see them renege on their promises in the event they win the civil war and are no longer as reliant on international support.
  - v3ss0n 3y ago
    > Aung San Suu Kyi herself famously refused to even utter the word "Rohingya" while defending her dear generals against the genocide accusations, so I don't think you can put blame only on the junta/USDP and absolve the NLD from all responsiblity. Well , Whole internal affairs is under Junta even tho NLD are elected. Guns are pointed at her , and examples are given to U Ko Ne . She don't have much choice.
zmmmmm 3y ago
thanks It sounds bad but it does still sound primarily like neglect and not some kind of genuine active involvement, as I hear frequently suggested.
- harmmonica 3y ago
  I might be the most naive person on Earth for thinking this, but I can’t imagine any circumstance where this was anything but neglect on FB’s part. Or maybe neglect isn’t the right word. Maybe FB, like so many tech companies, optimized for the wrong metrics. So it’s more proactive than neglect? If your audience is a vampire and you want to get engagement you show a lot of bulging veins. I don’t mean to suggest that the broader Buddhist population (ie most of Myanmar) is bloodthirsty, but if a tiny (tiny!) slice of it had hate on the mind it’s not hard to understand the argument that FB amplified the bloodlust (wow, look at the spike in engagement on the internal dashboard!). Chart goes up and to the right and some PM gets paid. And it’s super bad when it’s the ruling government (the Junta in this case) that’s the vampire, as a sibling comment contends. All so brutal.

v3ss0n 3y ago

- There was a pre-existing prejudice towards muslims/rohinyga in Burma/myanmar by the dominant Buddhist population. No , i am 40 years old and before Rohingya crisis we have no hate towards muslim but have to admit we don't even know Rohingya race exist at all . The general populace is very peaceful towards muslim . - it became easier for anti-muslim voices in Myanmar to spread their message. The anti-muslim voice are not from civlians , they are from Junta and Hardline Junta who lost power due to democratic transition and the Hardline Party called USDP . So it is political as evident now as their failure and lead to coup. - Facebook was warned on many occasions that users attributing the violence against Buddhists to Muslims was leading to calls for violence against the Muslim minority, with multiple meetings/discussions by Myanmar and western sources at Facebook hq itself, only for Facebook to not take any action but instead focus on increasing engagement . Deaths and killing are done by military junta , with and without uniform - to look like civilians and their sponsored grouped called MaBaTha .

harmmonica 3y ago
My apologies. I was just trying to summarize the op’s contention about what’s transpired with Facebook there. I have no reason to doubt what you say is mostly true, but do you think that some of the general Buddhist population, beyond the Junta/leadership/dictatorship, had anti-Muslim/Rohingya sentiment before Facebook was widely available and so it was those voices who were amplified when Facebook’s growth accelerated in the country? The primary person the article cites was a Buddhist monk from what I understand.
- v3ss0n 3y ago
  Budhhism can be mainly catgeorized as follow - Theravada Buddhism - Mahayana Buddhism Those are original but in myanmar. - Real Buddhist Who actually practices meditation and dharma - Buddhist because of Ancestors - MaBaTha Nationaist Buddhist - All about nationalistom actually which is brain washed and organized by junta. - Nat Koe Buddhist , who is not after dharma , but follows rites , traditional spirit worshipping Those latter 2 sact are the ones recurited into MaBaTha That monk is a military planted spy especially for Rohingya crisis. He was pictured together with ex spy chief after coup.
yorwba 3y ago
> we don't even know Rohingya race exist at all It has been long-standing government policy to deny the existence of Rohingya as an ethnic group, claiming that they're immigrants from Bangladesh, in order to deny them citizenship; this being a manifestation of pre-existing prejudice towards Muslims/Rohingya by the dominant political groups, both military junta and democratically elected civilians. (Though I think attributing this to Buddhists in general is just as much a mistake as attributing a crime to Muslims in general.) So it's unsurprising if you hadn't heard anything negative about Rohingya, but maybe you heard something negative about ကုလား or some other moniker meant to deny them recognition. Aung San Suu Kyi herself famously refused to even utter the word "Rohingya" while defending her dear generals against the genocide accusations, so I don't think you can put blame only on the junta/USDP and absolve the NLD from all responsiblity. Recently, the NUG has started making noise about finally reforming the citizenship law, so maybe the situation will improve in the future, but I could also see them renege on their promises in the event they win the civil war and are no longer as reliant on international support.
- v3ss0n 3y ago
  > Aung San Suu Kyi herself famously refused to even utter the word "Rohingya" while defending her dear generals against the genocide accusations, so I don't think you can put blame only on the junta/USDP and absolve the NLD from all responsiblity. Well , Whole internal affairs is under Junta even tho NLD are elected. Guns are pointed at her , and examples are given to U Ko Ne . She don't have much choice.

zmmmmm 3y ago

thanks It sounds bad but it does still sound primarily like neglect and not some kind of genuine active involvement, as I hear frequently suggested.

harmmonica 3y ago
I might be the most naive person on Earth for thinking this, but I can’t imagine any circumstance where this was anything but neglect on FB’s part. Or maybe neglect isn’t the right word. Maybe FB, like so many tech companies, optimized for the wrong metrics. So it’s more proactive than neglect? If your audience is a vampire and you want to get engagement you show a lot of bulging veins. I don’t mean to suggest that the broader Buddhist population (ie most of Myanmar) is bloodthirsty, but if a tiny (tiny!) slice of it had hate on the mind it’s not hard to understand the argument that FB amplified the bloodlust (wow, look at the spike in engagement on the internal dashboard!). Chart goes up and to the right and some PM gets paid. And it’s super bad when it’s the ruling government (the Junta in this case) that’s the vampire, as a sibling comment contends. All so brutal.