'Facebook is spreading hate speech against Rohingya Muslims': UN
Geneva: The UN human rights experts have blamed Facebook for playing a key role in spreading hate speech against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Speaking at the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva, UN Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee said that "everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar," adding it has been used to spread hate speech. "Iam afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended," she said.
Facebook did not immediately comment on the fresh charges.
Lee said she had seen evidence that Myanmar's military was continuing to target the Rohingya, razing their villages.
Marzuki Darusman, Chairman of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, said on Monday that the social media platform had played a "determining role" in Myanmar.
"As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media," ABC Online quoted Darusman as saying.
More than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state into Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown last August.
Last week, Sri Lanka barred social messaging networks, including Facebook, following violence against minority Muslims in Kandy district.
The government ordered internet and mobile service providers to temporarily block Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as messaging service Viber, after officials said these platforms were fueling online hate speech.
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HP Cong Minority Morcha delegation meets with party leader Venugopal over mosque row
Shimla (PTI): A delegation of the Himachal Congress Minority Morcha apprised the party's central leaders on Thursday of the atmosphere of fear created in the state by targeting a particular community and staging demonstrations near mosques.
The delegation led by Iqbal Mohammad, president of the state Congress Minority Morcha, also comprised imams of various mosques. It met with Congress general secretary K C Venugopal and its Minority Morcha national president Imran Pratapgarhi in New Delhi.
In a statement here, the state Congress Minority Morcha said the situation has become tense due to demonstrations by Hindu outfits in front of mosques and efforts were being made to vitiate the atmosphere and instill fear among Muslims.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu is trying to take people of all religions along but some elements are trying to spoil the atmosphere and malign the government, it added.
According to the statement, Venugopal spoke to the chief minister over the phone over the issue.
Ten people were injured during a protest demanding the demolition of a portion of a mosque in Shimla's Sanjauli area last week. In Mandi, police used water cannons on protestors demanding the demolition of an unauthorised portion of a mosque in the town.
On Tuesday, residents of Kasumpti in Shimla submitted a memorandum to demolish a mosque in the area and similar demands are also coming in from Sunni and other areas in the state.
A dispute between a barber from the minority community and a local businessman in the Malyana area in the suburbs of Shimla on August 30 turned into a communal issue with Hindu groups demanding the demolition of unauthorised mosques and residents calling for the identification and verification of outsiders coming in the state.
