The Hindu
Soibam Rocky Singh, New Delhi
January 29, 2024
The petition was filed by Mohammad Hamim and Kawsar Mohammed, residing
in the national capital for the past two to five years, seeking
protection of the right to life of the members of their community in
Delhi and other parts of the country.
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A recent public interest litigation (PIL) plea filed by two Rohingya refugees before the Delhi High Court has flagged “hate campaigns” on the social media platform, Facebook, referring to members of the community as “terrorists” and “infiltrators”, and exaggerating the number of Rohingya who fled ethnic violence in Myanmar and sought refuge in India.
The petition was filed by Mohammad Hamim and Kawsar Mohammed, residing in the national capital for the past two to five years, seeking protection of the right to life of the members of their community in Delhi and other parts of the country.
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority community from the Rakhine state of Myanmar against whom the Myanmar military had launched a campaign of mass atrocities in August 2017, causing more than 7,70,000 Rohingya to flee. At least 20,000 of them are in India and most of them have cards that validate their identity as ‘a refugee seeking safety’ from the UN Refugee Agency, which recognises the Rohingya as a persecuted community.
‘Physical threats’
They said the community faces physical threats owing to the dissemination of “violent hate remarks” targeting them on the basis of their ethnicity and religion on Facebook. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, several anti-Rohingya posts went viral on Facebook, they said.
“Also, as 2024 is an election year for India, there is a high risk of widespread harmful content in both Hindi and other Indian languages originating in India. Particularly, politically divisive content and misinformation can result in situations of violence against the Rohingya community in India and abroad,” the petition in the HC said.
The PIL plea submitted screenshots of multiple online posts targeting the Rohingya in the country, emphasising that “harmful content and hate speech directed at Rohingya originates from within India”.
“The origins of these posts targeting them are in India, and the petitioners are affected by Facebook’s failure to take action against hate speech on its platform and its algorithms, which promote hate speeches and content on its platform, leading to situations of real-time violence against minority groups,” the plea said.
It said the presence of Rohingya refugees in India is a highly politicised matter and they are disproportionately targeted with harmful content on Facebook, painting them as a threat to the country.
The petition quoted a 2019 study by Equality Labs, an advocacy group that focuses on technology and human rights, into hate speech on Facebook in India, which found that 6% of Islamophobic posts were specifically anti-Rohingya. The members of the community comprised only 0.02% of India’s Muslim population at that time.
The PIL said Facebook’s lack of content moderators in Indian languages was contributing to the proliferation of hate on the social media platform.
It added that Facebook had several options to prevent the spread and amplification of hatred against the Rohingya. “It possesses ‘Break the Glass’ (BTG) measures, referred to as ‘levers’, designed for critical emergencies. These measures can effectively limit or turn off the amplifying capabilities of Meta’s (Facebook’s parent company) engagement-centric algorithms,” the PIL said.
“Meta has employed BTG measures in the U.S. during the 2020 Presidential elections and the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021, acknowledging the potential of its content-shaping algorithms to promote divisive and inflammatory content,” it said.
The plea has sought a direction to Facebook to deploy the same standard of content moderation for Hindi and Indian language content that it employs for English language content.
On the ground, the Rohingya community is fighting for survival. Mohd. Salim Ulha, 35, who has been living in a squalid refugee camp in Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj since 2012, told The Hindu that they are dependent on water tankers to meet their drinking, hygiene, and domestic needs.
‘Allegations unfounded’
Mr. Ulha said the refugee camp, gutted in fires that broke out in 2018 and 2021, has 262-odd Rohingya, including over 100 children under 12 years. He said most of them eke out a living doing odd jobs and working as daily wagers at construction sites.
On social media posts insinuating that the community is involved in crime, Mr. Ulha said such allegations are unfounded.
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority community from the Rakhine state of Myanmar against whom the Myanmar military had launched a campaign of mass atrocities in August 2017, causing more than 7,70,000 Rohingya to flee. At least 20,000 of them are in India and most of them have cards that validate their identity as ‘a refugee seeking safety’ from the UN Refugee Agency, which recognises the Rohingya as a persecuted community.
‘Physical threats’
They said the community faces physical threats owing to the dissemination of “violent hate remarks” targeting them on the basis of their ethnicity and religion on Facebook. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, several anti-Rohingya posts went viral on Facebook, they said.
“Also, as 2024 is an election year for India, there is a high risk of widespread harmful content in both Hindi and other Indian languages originating in India. Particularly, politically divisive content and misinformation can result in situations of violence against the Rohingya community in India and abroad,” the petition in the HC said.
The PIL plea submitted screenshots of multiple online posts targeting the Rohingya in the country, emphasising that “harmful content and hate speech directed at Rohingya originates from within India”.
“The origins of these posts targeting them are in India, and the petitioners are affected by Facebook’s failure to take action against hate speech on its platform and its algorithms, which promote hate speeches and content on its platform, leading to situations of real-time violence against minority groups,” the plea said.
It said the presence of Rohingya refugees in India is a highly politicised matter and they are disproportionately targeted with harmful content on Facebook, painting them as a threat to the country.
The petition quoted a 2019 study by Equality Labs, an advocacy group that focuses on technology and human rights, into hate speech on Facebook in India, which found that 6% of Islamophobic posts were specifically anti-Rohingya. The members of the community comprised only 0.02% of India’s Muslim population at that time.
The PIL said Facebook’s lack of content moderators in Indian languages was contributing to the proliferation of hate on the social media platform.
It added that Facebook had several options to prevent the spread and amplification of hatred against the Rohingya. “It possesses ‘Break the Glass’ (BTG) measures, referred to as ‘levers’, designed for critical emergencies. These measures can effectively limit or turn off the amplifying capabilities of Meta’s (Facebook’s parent company) engagement-centric algorithms,” the PIL said.
“Meta has employed BTG measures in the U.S. during the 2020 Presidential elections and the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021, acknowledging the potential of its content-shaping algorithms to promote divisive and inflammatory content,” it said.
The plea has sought a direction to Facebook to deploy the same standard of content moderation for Hindi and Indian language content that it employs for English language content.
On the ground, the Rohingya community is fighting for survival. Mohd. Salim Ulha, 35, who has been living in a squalid refugee camp in Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj since 2012, told The Hindu that they are dependent on water tankers to meet their drinking, hygiene, and domestic needs.
‘Allegations unfounded’
Mr. Ulha said the refugee camp, gutted in fires that broke out in 2018 and 2021, has 262-odd Rohingya, including over 100 children under 12 years. He said most of them eke out a living doing odd jobs and working as daily wagers at construction sites.
On social media posts insinuating that the community is involved in crime, Mr. Ulha said such allegations are unfounded.
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