Role of Social Media in Inciting the Genocidal Acts: A Case Study on Myanmar’s Rohingya

Abstract

For years, security forces and the Myanmar army persecuted the Rohingya Muslims, under the shade of “national security”. In 2018, the New York Times published a report accusing Facebook of spreading hate speech, incitements, propaganda, and inflammatory posts against the Rohingyas. According to the report, approximately 700 people worked in a secret
operation which was started by the military people of Myanmar a few years back. There are debates regarding social media’s involvement, more specifically Facebook’s involvement, in causing genocide. This article thus examines the role of social media in inciting genocide in Myanmar against the Muslim Rohingyas. The core argument is that Myanmar was involved in spreading hate speech and propaganda through social media. Consideringthe role of social media in inciting genocidal acts, this article also proves the Rohingya genocide from the perspective of the 1948 Genocide Convention.