A judge in the United States has ordered Facebook to release records of now-closed accounts connected to anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The judge in Washington, DC, criticised Facebook for failing to hand over information to investigators seeking to prosecute the country for international crimes against the Muslim minority Rohingya, the newspaper said. Facebook had refused to release the data, saying it would violate a US law that bars electronic communication services from disclosing users’ communications.
But the judge said the posts, which were deleted, would not be covered under the law, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Reuters news agency could not immediately access details of the ruling, and Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Gambia is seeking the records as part of a case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide.
Myanmar authorities say they were battling an armed uprising and deny carrying out systematic atrocities.
More than 730,000 predominantly Muslim Rohingya fled Myanmar’s western Rakhine state in August 2017 after a military crackdown that refugees said included mass killings and rape.
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