Myanmar votes today in its 2nd election since the end of army-backed rule. An important moment, not easy to imagine when I began covering the country. But @hrw & others say it’s a flawed vote - 1.5 million disenfranchised, the opposition alleges censorship reuters.com/article/us-mya… More than 730,000 people who lived in Myanmar during the last election are no longer here, having been driven out.

They will not vote, nor will their families still inside be able to, and their plight is not on the agenda of any major party.

uk.reuters.com/article/us-mya…

There is a serious problem ahead of Myanmar's election with hate speech and misinformation on Facebook. We found pages exhibiting inauthentic behaviour w/ 10,000s followers spreading pro-army and anti-Muslim content. Muslim candidates have been smeared.

reuters.com/article/us-mya… Facebook has invested massively in its Myanmar operation. Dozens of army-linked pages were deleted in Oct. But some popped right back up & regained huge followings.

The context: ahead of the vote the army is making accusations of fraud and has implied it may not accept result.

The executive summary of by Myanmar's govt-approved probe into the Rohingya crisis has been published. It characterizes what the U.N & others call genocide against the minority as a "haphazard response" by the military to attacks by Muslim militants. That included mass killings. Significant that govt is now acknowledging killings of >100 Rohingya civilians.

However - and this comes two days before initial ICJ judgement in genocide case - the report frames crackdown as a "disproportionate response" to militant attacks, not attempt to drive out population

Umm. Facebook seems to be translating “Xi Jinping” written in Burmese as “Mr Shithole”.

This is a post on Aung San Suu Kyi’s official page, recounting her meeting with him yesterday... h/t @felizysolo

”kingdom of Mr Shithole” From @IrrawaddyNews...