The Gambia Government has won its landmark case against social media giant Facebook in a US court.  over anti-Rohingya videos. 

Judge Zia M. Faruqui of the District of Columbia court ordered Facebook to provide the content it deleted from the banned Myanmar accounts relating to anti-Rohingya hate speech and incitement to violence.

In his ruling, the judge said: “The locking away of the requested content would be throwing away the opportunity to understand how disinformation beget genocide of the Rohingya and would foreclose a reckoning at the ICJ.

Facebook describes its remediation efforts for its role in what happened in Myanmar as “some of the most important work being done at Facebook.”

“The Court’s decision compels Facebook to live up to its words. For the foregoing reasons, The Gambia’s request for de-platformed content and related internal investigation documents is GRANTED and its request for a deposition with Facebook is DENIED,” it added.

Gambia government welcomed the ruling saying “it means that compliance of this Order by Facebook would ensure a significant production of information that could support the Gambia in its current case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).”

The dispute with Facebook is part of The Gambia’s efforts to gain access to incriminating videos of Myanmar officials including senior army officers facing genocide accusations against the minority Rohingya people. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba