Quartz: One of the first two Muslim women in US Congress is already battling a fake news campaign. “The Democratic candidate was resoundingly elected with over 78% of the vote in Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, and along with Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American from Michigan, is poised to become one of two first Muslim women serving in Congress come January. But as busy as Ilhan [Omar]’s been on readying for Capitol Hill, so has the digital sphere where stories of misinformation are being peddled about her, some of which have gone viral on social media platforms.”
anti-Islam
New York Times: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar
New York Times: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar. “Facebook has long promoted itself as a tool for bringing people together to make the world a better place. Now the social media giant has acknowledged that in Myanmar it did the opposite, and human rights groups say it has a lot of work to do to fix that.”
Myanmar: Myanmar’s Military Said to Be Behind Facebook Campaign That Fueled Genocide
New York Times: Myanmar’s Military Said to Be Behind Facebook Campaign That Fueled Genocide. “They posed as fans of pop stars and national heroes as they flooded Facebook with their hatred. One said Islam was a global threat to Buddhism. Another shared a false story about the rape of a Buddhist woman by a Muslim man. The Facebook posts were not from everyday internet users. Instead, they were from Myanmar military personnel who turned the social network into a tool for ethnic cleansing, according to former military officials, researchers and civilian officials in the country.”
Channel NewsAsia: Russian ‘Facebook’ bans Myanmar army chief, hardline monk
Channel NewsAsia: Russian ‘Facebook’ bans Myanmar army chief, hardline monk. “Russian social media site VKontakte (VK) has followed Facebook by banning Myanmar’s army chief and a nationalist monk known for stirring up Islamophobia in a country condemned globally for the treatment of its Rohingya Muslims.”
The Atlantic: Internet Sleuths Are Hunting for China’s Secret Internment Camps for Muslims
The Atlantic: Internet Sleuths Are Hunting for China’s Secret Internment Camps for Muslims. “Citizen journalists and scholars are in a race against time, scouring the internet for evidence before the Chinese government can erase it. Since last year, the country has been sending vast numbers of Muslims to internment camps, where it tries to force them to renounce Islam and embrace the Communist Party, as The New York Times and other media outlets have reported based on interviews with former inmates. At this point, as many as one million Muslims are being held in the camps, according to an estimate widely cited by the UN and U.S. officials.”
Mashable: Facebook bans Myanmar military commander for inciting violence
Mashable: Facebook bans Myanmar military commander for inciting violence. “Facebook has just removed a number of Facebook pages belonging to individuals and groups in Myanmar for spreading hate speech and fake news against Rohingya Muslims in the country. In a post titled ‘Removing Myanmar Military Officials From Facebook’ on its Newsroom site, Facebook announced it had removed 52 Pages,18 accounts, and an Instagram profile related to spreading the type of misinformation used to incite violence and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. “
Engadget: Egypt bans YouTube for one month over 2012 anti-Islamic video
Engadget: Egypt bans YouTube for one month over 2012 anti-Islamic video. “Egypt is about to act on its longstanding threat to temporarily ban YouTube. The country’s highest administrative court has ruled that officials must block the streaming video site for a month (along with ‘all’ links playing the video) after it allowed the 2012 anti-Islamic video Innocence of Muslims. The short film’s portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed triggered outrage in the Islamic world and led to a 2013 Egyptian case demanding the ban, but the appeal process has kept the ruling in limbo for the past five years.”
