Rohingya Sue Facebook For $150bn Over Myanmar Hate Speech
An example of legal risks within social factors. Dozens of Rohingya refugees in the UK and US have sued Facebook, accusing the social media giant of allowing hate speech against them to spread.
They are demanding more than $150bn (£113bn) in compensation, claiming Facebook's platforms promoted violence against the persecuted minority. An estimated 10,000 Rohingya Muslims were killed during a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017.
The company is accused of allowing "the dissemination of hateful and dangerous misinformation to continue for years". In the UK, a British law firm representing some of the refugees has written a letter to Facebook, seen by the BBC, alleging: Facebook's algorithms "amplified hate speech against the Rohingya people".