The Guardian: Facebook Bans Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s Posts

Rohingya Muslims, long marginalized, have few resources to resist the Myanmar military and flee the nation by the thousands. Social media can be a lifeline during such chaos. Yet in the midst of humanitarian crisis, Facebook is retaining the Myanmar military’s page while putting the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on its “most dangerous” list, prompting moderators to delete posts that praise the insurgent group. “The company’s community standards ban posts by or in support of such organizations, which it defines as groups engaged in terrorism, organized violence or crime, mass murder, or organized hate,” reports a team of reporters for the Guardian. UN officials have described the Myanmar military's treatment of Rohingya as “ethnic cleansing.” The Myanmar government labeled the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army group a terrorist organization on August 25 after attacks on security posts, but Arsa describes its members as freedom fighters. “Rohingya arriving in Bangladeshi refugee camps have described a savage military campaign against Rohingya villages, with arson attacks, rapes, shootings, and land mines.” A Human Rights Watch official agreed that social media tools are crucial in shaping international opinion, and Rohingya leaders point out that the censorship limits their ability to draw attention to the crisis. – YaleGlobal