US court orders Facebook to release data related to violence against Rohingya

A US federal judge has ordered social media platform Facebook to hand over records related to accounts it had shut down in 2018 and were linked to the anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The judge in Washington DC criticised Facebook for failing to hand over critical data to investigators seeking to prosecute the country for international crimes against the Muslim minority Rohingya, rejecting the tech monopoly's arguments of protecting privacy as "rich with irony".

"Facebook taking up the mantle of privacy rights is rich with irony. News sites have entire sections dedicated to Facebook's sordid history of privacy scandals," the judge said in the ruling.

Facebook has been refusing to release data on violence against Rohingya, citing a US law which bars electronic communications companies from disclosing user information, but the judge ruled since the accounts were deleted, they would not be covered under the law and not sharing the content would "compound the tragedy that has befallen the Rohingya".