Necrocapitalism, data colonialism, and Facebook in Myanmar

The repression of the Rohingya (2012-2018)

Abstract

This article investigates how the systematic repression of the Rohingya people—particularly between 2012 and 2018—can be understood through the intersection of necrocapitalism and data colonialism. The research is guided by the following question: in what ways did the actions of the company Meta (Facebook) in Myanmar contribute to the escalation of hate speech and ethno-religious violence later classified as genocide? The central objective is to analyze the impact of digital platforms in contexts of structural violence, with a specific focus on Facebook’s role in amplifying persecutory narratives and socially legitimizing violence against the Rohingya population. Based on the concepts of necrocapitalism and data colonialism, the working hypothesis is that the data-extractive logic employed by major platforms, coupled with the lack of local regulation and institutional negligence by the company, facilitated the widespread dissemination of hate speech, thereby reinforcing colonial hierarchies and entrenching historical inequalities within the country. Methodologically, the study draws on bibliographic review and document analysis, with particular attention to the 2018 report by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, which attributes part of the crisis to the influence of social media. The findings indicate that Meta’s operations, when embedded within a sociopolitical landscape marked by colonial legacies and ethnic tensions, intensified necropolitical mechanisms mediated by digital infrastructures. This analysis thus highlights how the global digital economy can function as a vector of violence in postcolonial contexts marked by institutional fragility.