A number of Rohingya activists have had their social media accounts curtailed during the recent conflict in Myanmar, leading many to question whether they have been targeted by a co-ordinated campaign.
Rabiul Hossen is a prominent activist living in Bangladesh. He's been running a Facebook page since 2010, and was surprised when he saw that a number of his posts detailing the recent events in Myanmar's Rakhine state were being deleted.
Much of the content included graphic depictions of violence, but Facebook's guidelines generally allow such images if they deem them to be in the public interest, rather than "shared for sadistic pleasure or to celebrate or glorify violence." Hossen says he has contacts living in Myanmar who regularly send him images and videos of the conflict unfolding there.
"We are getting so many images, all of them are graphic. If we are not showing these graphic images to the world, what will we show?" Hossain tells Prothom Alo.
'Posts being deleted'
Hossain is one of a number of Rohingya activists who have had accounts or videos taken down by big social networks in the wake of the conflict in the region. And the issue is not confined to Facebook. Hossain is also one of the activists who runs the YouTube channel Arakan News Agency.
"There was nearly 60,000 subscribers and suddenly YouTube deleted that channel. That is not what we were expecting from social media. We were trying to highlight our issue but social media platforms are blocking us," Hossain says.
After Trending contacted YouTube, the company said the channel had received several "strikes" in quick succession, which resulted in the suspension - but that they had taken the decision to reinstate it.
