It’s a lawsuit that is unprecedented: U.S. law firm Edelson stubbornly on behalf of the Rohingya Muslim minority displaced from Myanmar, Class action filed against the Internet group Meta, to which Facebook belongs, in a California court. For complicity in genocide by spreading hate messages against Rohingya nationals, 150 billion dollars in compensation are requested.
The lawsuit is led by a Rohingya member who fled Myanmar and has lived in the United States since 2012. She wants to gather more than 100,000 other members of the Muslim minority behind her to win the spectacular amount from the US Internet company, which is valued at $ 900 billion on the stock exchange. The displacement of the Rohingya is believed to affect more than 750,000 people. Its International Court of Justice (ICJ) condemned Myanmar for the genocide of the Rohingya mass murders.
“Main cause of the genocide”
The allegations against Facebook and its managers weigh heavily. “While the Rohingya have long been victims of discrimination and persecution, the extent and violence of that persecution have changed dramatically over the past decade, from human rights abuses and sporadic violence to terrorism and mass genocide,” the indictment reads. “A major turning point in this change was the launch of Facebook in Burma in 2011, which has contributed significantly to the development and widespread use of Rohingya hate speech, misinformation and incitement to violence – all together
which together were a major cause of the later genocide of the Rohingya and sustained it. “
That did not go unnoticed by the management team at Facebook. The Facebook executives were aware that posts by the Myanmar government against the Rohingya Muslim minority were distributed on Facebook. In addition to the Californian court, a lawsuit is also to be brought in the UK. How successful these lawsuits will be remains to be seen. Under US law, Facebook is largely exempt from liability for content posted by its users. The plaintiffs therefore want the laws of Myanmar to be consulted – there is no such disclaimer there.
There is still no official answer to the case from Meta / Facebook. The share price is currently not suffering as a result, it is about 2 percent up on the previous day.
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