【Michael Maien】

Efforts by Facebook to moderate content in one of its fastest-growing countries has evidently not been easy.

Like what it's doing in many other markets,Michael Maien the social media giant is trying to stem content deemed hateful in Myanmar.

SEE ALSO: This gripping app lets you 'walk a mile' in a 16-year-old refugee girl's shoes

The emerging market experienced a surge of new internet users in recent years, and Facebook benefited with 10 million Burmese users by 2016.

With these new users come challenges. One hot button topic, the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis, has resulted in posts made insulting the minority Muslim Rohingyas.

On Facebook's end, it's trying to cut derogatory terms that have traditionally been thrown at the group. But like many automated processes dealing with a language's nuances, it can get those wrong.

In a Medium post, Facebook user Aung Kaung Myat, points out that Facebook has -- nearly comically -- blocked posts with any reference to banned words. This includes puns and words that sound like them.

Mashable Trend Report Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means. Sign up for Mashable’s weekly Trend Report newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

In a statement, Facebook said that the company's teams of moderators regularly engages and listens to feedback from the community, safety experts and NGOs in Myanmar.

"Once we’re made aware of errors we quickly act to resolve them," a spokesperson told Mashable, adding that the company conducts "regular audits and quality assessments" so errors will not happen again.

Moderation is an uphill battle

The move to ban slurs in Myanmar is the latest in Facebook's efforts to ban hate speech on its platform. In a series of leaked documents published by the Guardianlast week, Facebook outlined racial slurs as unacceptable on their platform, except in cases of ironic use.

The social media giant is facing pressure by governments to stop hate from its nearly two billion users. The company is also attempting to use machine learning and AI to ease the burden on its 4,500 content moderators.

Buddhist monks protest in Yangon against a pro-Muslim group. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Posts can be made in more than 70 languages, and in rapidly developing countries like Myanmar where Facebook has a growing user base, moderation could be a very difficult job.

"Hardliners know the effectiveness of online hate speech and are using it more," Ma Zar Chi Oo, a program manager at PEN Myanmar Centre, a literary advocacy group, told the Myanmar Timeslast year. "The number of shares, likes and comments on false information or fake news is astounding."

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting found 565 cases of hate speech on social and broadcast media in Myanmar from August to October last year, with just over half targeted to Muslims and Rohingya.

---

Featured Video For You

---

What it's like to be black and Irish in a post-Brexit world

---

• Digital Culture
• Science
• Tech
• Shopping
• Social Good
• Entertainment
• Life
• Deals

• A worthless juicer and a Gipper-branded server
• Friendship by Devon Brody
• The Paris Review Print Series: Shara Hughes by The Paris Review
• The Playoffs: A Dispatch by Rachel B. Glaser
• NYT Strands hints, answers for May 2
• On Vitamins by Maya Binyam
• How the Booksellers of Paris Are Preparing for Next Summer’s Olympics by Jacqueline Feldman
• At Chloë’s Closet Sale by Sophie Kemp
• A Typical Wall Street Republican
• What the Review’s Staff Is Doing This Week: August 21–27 by The Paris Review

• Altmaier vs. Fritz 2025 livestream: Watch French Open for free
• Bluetti AC300 solar generator: $1,000 off
• Best Apple deal: Save $80 on the Apple Watch SE
• 'The Last of Us' Season 2 finale ending, explained
• Today's Hurdle hints and answers for May 25, 2025
• Melania Trump welcomes you into the AI audiobook era with new memoir
• Anthropic's new AI model resorted to blackmail during testing
• Zeppieri vs. Alcaraz 2025 livestream: Watch French Open for free
• The Take It Down Act presents major enforcement problems
• Ruggable rugs are at their lowest price in years at Amazon

• Stablecoin bill advances in U.S. Senate as Trump critics call to end his crypto dealings
• A Letter from Henry Miller by Henry Miller
• The Green and the Gold by Helen Longstreth
• Alejo Carpentier’s Second Language by Alejandro Zambra
• NYT Strands hints, answers for May 18
• Who Was Robert Plunket? by Danzy Senna
• 115 Degrees, Las Vegas Strip by Meg Bernhard
• Game 6 by Rachel B. Glaser
• Hurricane Laura's impact lingered with nightmarish mosquito swarms
• Pasolini on Caravaggio’s Artificial Light by Pier Paolo Pasolini

• Seven Steam games whose reviews have changed a lot
• Game 6 by Rachel B. Glaser
• The Paris Review Wins 2023 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize by The Paris Review
• Diary, 1994–1999 by Dina Nayeri
• Is it 'Thunderbolts*' or *The New Avengers'?
• Fireworks: On Kenneth Anger and The Legend of Zelda by The Paris Review
• Diary, 2021 by Lydia Davis
• The Hole by Nicolaia Rips
• Apple is actively looking at AI search for Safari
• “The British Male!”: On Martin Amis by The Paris Review