I really don't see why Facebook is blamed for this. That ethnic tension was present way before Facebook even existed. It was kept in check by an authoritarian military dictatorship and then bubbled up in the transition to more democracy, which really shouldn't have been unexpected. Facebook was just there at the wrong time, and happened to be the way people were communicating at that time; Aung San Suu Kyi has also gotten a lot of criticism for being in this even though she has been mostly powerless to do anything about it either.<p>All Facebook can do is stop the propagation on their network. Even with China-level censorship, they would probably need serious manual effort or even a complete network shutdown to stop being a medium. But the same problems will still occur using other channels, maybe the hate won't move as fast, but it will still be fast enough to cause plenty of damage.
Facebook sees this as a cost center and will therefore do the minimum it can get away with to address this.<p>They have shown no real concern for the negative effects they have on communities and society.<p>Their leadership has displayed a lust for power that would make most politicians blush, IMO.
There has been a big problem in India with lynch mobs being formed in Whatsapp groups, over various unsubstantiated rumours, including apparent child snatchers travelling through villages [1].<p>This raises an interesting cross section of moral issues. Obviously end-to-end encryption is good for a lot of reasons. But end-to-end encryption is one of the reasons that these lynchings have been able to happen. These kinds of lynchings have been going on forever, but Whatsapp and mobile phones have allowed these rumours to spread faster than ever before, and for mobs to form so much easier.<p>Does the right to privacy outweigh people's right to travel without fear of being lynched?<p>[1] <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44856910" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44856910</a>
Interesting that the project codename is “Honey Badger.” To me that connotes not caring less — you might remember this YouTube viral video from a few years ago:<p><a href="https://youtu.be/4r7wHMg5Yjg" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/4r7wHMg5Yjg</a>