Delhi HC Reserves Order on PIL Urging FB to Combat Harmful Content Targeting Rohingya Refugees

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) moved by two Rohingya refugees.

The PIL seeks directives from Facebook India and the Centre to monitor and promptly suspend or remove hate speech and harmful content originating from India on its platform.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, after hearing the arguments from both parties, reserved the order.

Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, representing Facebook India, stated that the platform has implemented measures such as community standards, third-party fact-checkers, reporting tools, and artificial intelligence to detect and prevent the spread of inappropriate or objectionable content, including hate speech and harmful content.

The plea highlights the politicized nature of the presence of Rohingya refugees in India, emphasizing that they are disproportionately targeted on Facebook with harmful content. This content often portrays the Rohingya as a threat to India, labeling them as “terrorists” and “infiltrators” while exaggerating the number of Rohingya who have fled to India.

The plea has been moved through Advocate Kawalpreet Kaur, which stated that Rohingyas in India live in impoverished camps without access to schools, medical facilities, or regular employment. The living conditions include a lack of potable water, proper sanitation facilities, and constant threats, including physical violence and attacks on their slum settlements.

Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioners, argued that the harmful content on Facebook portraying Rohingyas as a threat mirrors the content that proliferated on the platform before the 2017 clearance operations against the Rohingya in Myanmar. This raises concerns for the safety of Rohingyas in India, as false political propaganda on Facebook has previously led to attacks and the displacement of Rohingyas.

The Rohingya minority, stateless and having fled ethnic cleansing operations in Myanmar in 2017, faces vulnerability in India and Bangladesh. While Bangladesh hosts one million Rohingya refugees in congested camps, India shelters approximately 74,600 Rohingya refugees, according to the UNHCR. The “Rohingya issue” is exploited as a political tool in both countries, resulting in a significant amount of harmful content on Facebook, as mentioned in the plea.