Meta in Myanmar, Part II: The Crisis

by mpnagle on 10/1/2023, 6:24:26 PM with 2 comments

  • by dang on 10/1/2023, 7:14:13 PM

    Recent and related:

    Meta in Myanmar - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37709284 - Sept 2023 (169 comments)

  • by kaycebasques on 10/1/2023, 7:51:49 PM

    OK, I think I can summarize the author's argument now:

    * Facebook had a strategy to cement its role as the center of online life in Myanmar and it worked

    * Facebook did not properly invest in Burmese [1] language content moderation and there was a proliferation of racist / genocidal memes [2]

    * A lot of people tried to warn Facebook about the content moderation problem but Facebook did not adequately respond

    * The timing of a terrible, full-blown genocide correlated strongly with Facebook's increased presence in Myanmar

    * Facebook incentivized sensationalist content, and racist / genocidal content was an effective strategy for people responding to those incentives

    [1] Not sure if I have the correct name for the language(s)

    [2] "memes" in the Dawkins sense