Facebook Inc. has always struggled with keeping hate speech off its platform, and now a team of United Nations investigators has blamed the social network for spreading hate speech and inciting ethnic violence in the southeast Asian country of Myanmar.

Myanmar, which is located just west of Thailand, is under investigation by the U.N. for human rights violations and possible acts of genocide against Rohingya Muslims. According to the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, the country’s security forces “committed gross human rights violations” while driving out nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees.

Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the U.N. probe in Myanmar, said this week that social media has played a “determining role” in the ethnic violence occuring in Myanmar.

“It has … substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissension and conflict, if you will, within the public,” Darusman said at a press conference (via Reuters). “Hate speech is certainly of course a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media.”

Facebook’s Community Standards specifically forbid hate speech, which includes “content that directly attacks people” based on race, religion, gender and so on. The company’s guidelines also say that “organizations and people dedicated to promoting hatred against these protected groups are not allowed a presence on Facebook.” However, the U.N. investigators said Myanmar hate groups have still gained a foothold on Facebook.

“It was used to convey public messages but we know that the ultra-nationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities,” said U.N. Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee. “I’m afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended.”

In an oral report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Darusman said of hate speech on Facebook: “To a large extent, it goes unchecked.” A Facebook spokesperson responded to Darusman’s comments today, saying:

There is no place for hate speech or content that promotes violence on Facebook, and we work hard to keep it off our platform. We have invested significantly in technology and local language expertise to help us swiftly remove hate content and people who repeatedly violate our hate speech policies. We take this incredibly seriously and have worked with experts in Myanmar for several years to develop safety resources and counter-speech campaigns. This work includes a dedicated Safety Page for Myanmar, a locally illustrated version of our Community Standards, and regular training sessions for civil society and local community groups across the country. Of course, there is always more we can do and we will continue to work with local experts to help keep our community safe.

The Myanmar fact-finding team will deliver its final report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in September.

Photo: AK Rockefeller/Flickr