The head of a UN Myanmar team of investigators said Monday (Sept. 13) that Facebook has overlooked millions of articles that may just be accusations of war crimes and genocide.
The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) aims to create registers for proceedings before domestic, regional or foreign courts. It was established in 2018 through the United Nations Human Rights Council and became operational the following year.
“Facebook shared with the mechanism millions of pieces of account networks that were removed through the company because they distorted their identity,” said Mr. Nicholas Koumjian, director of the IIMM, in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. .
Myanmar faces genocide charges at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the army’s crackdown on the Rohingya in 2017 that forced more than 730,000 people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.
Facebook, whose parent company replaced its call to Meta Platforms Inc last year, said foreign efforts for accountability for crimes against the Rohingya.
“(We) have made voluntary and legal disclosures to the UN investigative mechanism as public data disclosures to Gambia,” which filed the genocide case with the ICJ, Miranda Sissons, director of human rights policy at Meta, said in an email. mail.
In 2018, UN human rights researchers said social media had spread hate speech that fueled violence in Myanmar. Facebook has said it is running to block hate speech.
Using Facebook elements and other data from more than two hundred sources, the mechanism prepared 67 “sets of evidence and analysis. “
These packages will be shared with judicial authorities, adding the International Criminal Court (ICC) and ICJ, he added. Koumjian.
The ICC has also opened a case for deportation and other crimes against humanity involving Rohingya refugees who were forced to move to the ICC member state, Bangladesh.
Myanmar denies genocide and says its armed forces were conducting valid militant operations.