Facebook apologises for role in Sri Lankan violence

A file photo of a damaged auto rickshaw vehicle on its side after a mob attack in Minuwangoda on May 14, 2019, north of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. The report on Sri Lanka details Facebook’s failure to respond to almost a decade of warnings about misuse of its platform from groups within the country. — AFP

Facebook Inc’s lack of a serious response to signs of abuse on its platform in Sri Lanka may have helped stoke deadly violence in the country in 2018, according to an investigation of the social network’s operations there. The company released a summary of the findings Tuesday, along with other independent assessments of the service’s impact on human rights in Indonesia and Cambodia.

“We deplore this misuse of our platform,” the company said in a response to the Sri Lanka report. "We recognise, and apologise for, the very real human rights impacts that resulted.” Facebook also highlighted actions it has taken to address the problems, including hiring content moderators with local language skills, implementing technology that automatically detects signs of hate speech and keeps abusive content from spreading, and trying to deepen relationships with local civil society groups.