Rohingya refugees sue Facebook for $150 billion over Myanmar hate speech

Rohingya refugees in the United States and the United Kingdom have sued Facebook, now called Meta, for allowing hate speech against them to spread. Claiming the social media giant's platforms promoted violence against Myanmar's persecuted minority, the refugees have demanded more than $150 in compensation. The company is accused of allowing ''the dissemination of hateful and dangerous misinformation to continue for years".

Filed in California on Monday (December 6) by law firms Edelson PC and Fields PLLC, the lawsuit argues that Facebook'sFacebook's failures to regulate and police content fuelled the real-world violence faced by the Rohingya community in Myanmar. In a coordinated action, lawyers from the United Kingdom too sent a letter of notice to Facebook'sFacebook's office in London.

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More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar'sMyanmar's Rakhine state in August 2017 after a military crackdown that refugees said included mass killings and rape. Following the military coup in Myanmar in February this year, the company banned the military from both Facebook and Instagram.