Jack Dorsey is facing a social media firestorm over his ‘disappointingly clueless’ promotion of Myanmar – a country that has been accused of mass genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
In a series of tweets, Twitter’s CEO encouraged his followers to visit the ‘beautiful country’.
‘The people are full of joy and the food is amazing. I visited the cities of Yangon, Mandalay, and Bagan. We visited and meditated at many monasteries around the country,’ Dorsey wrote in a tweet that included a photo of himself in Myanmar.
Dorsey is seen dressed in all black while visiting the country and participating in a ’10-day silent vipassana meditation’.
Jack Dorsey (right, in Myanmar) has kicked up a social media storm over his ‘tone-deaf’ promotion of Myanmar, a country that has been accused of mass genocide of Rohingya Muslims
In a series of tweets, Twitter’s CEO encouraged his followers to visit the ‘beautiful country’
‘And if you’re willing to travel a bit, go to Myanmar,’ Dorsey said
He said he was visiting Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar, for his birthday on November 19.
‘I woke up at 4 am every day, and we meditated until 9 pm. There were breaks for breakfast, lunch, and walking. No dinner,’ he tweeted.
Dorsey, 42, also shared a video of his favorite moment from the trip.
‘The highlight of my trip was serving monks and nuns food, and donating sandals and umbrellas. This group of young nuns in Mandalay and their chanting was breathtaking and chilling.’
In the video, Dorsey is seen sitting in a circle with the nuns as they chant.
‘Vipassana is not for everyone, but if any of this resonates with you even in the slightest, I’d encourage you to give it a try. If in the US, this center in Texas is a great start: https://siri.dhamma.org/,’ he tweeted.
‘And if you’re willing to travel a bit, go to Myanmar,’ Dorsey added.
It didn’t take long for Twitter users to call Dorsey out for his promotion of a country that has been accused of decades-long persecution of Rohingya Muslims.
‘Jack, you are so disappointingly clueless. With everything going on in Myanmar right now, this is so out of touch. Next up: sightseeing in Yemen I guess [sic],’ one Twitter user wrote.
Another said: ‘A country ravaged by civil war, where a genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing recently saw tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children die, and a million more driven out into Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations on earth? I dunno.’
One user posed the question: ‘Who will go for a tour where daily people are killed in genocide?? You are misleading people.’
It didn’t take long for Twitter users to call Dorsey out for his promotion of a country that has been accused of decades-long persecution of Rohingya Muslims
One user posed the question: ‘Who will go for a tour where daily people are killed in genocide?? You are misleading people’
In October, UN investigators said that genocide is still taking place against Rohingya Muslims remaining in Myanmar and the government is increasingly demonstrating it has no interest in establishing a fully functioning democracy.
Marzuki Darusman, chair of the UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar, said thousands of Rohingya are still fleeing to Bangladesh.
Darusman said the estimated 250,000 to 400,000 who have stayed following last year’s brutal military campaign in the Buddhist-majority country ‘continue to suffer the most severe’ restrictions and repression.
‘It is an ongoing genocide that is taking place at the moment,’ he said at the time.
Darusman said the requirements for genocide, except perhaps for killings, ‘continue to hold’ for Rohingya still in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state.
These include causing serious bodily harm, inflicting conditions designed to destroy the Rohingya, and imposing measures to prevent births, he said.
Myanmar’s UN ambassador, Hau Do Suan, called the fact-finding mission ‘flawed, biased and politically motivated’ and said the government ‘categorically rejects’ its inference of ‘genocidal intent’.
In October, UN investigators said that genocide is still taking place against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and the government is demonstrating it has no interest in establishing a fully functioning democracy. Rohingya refugees are seen last month during a protest
The requirements for genocide, except perhaps for killings, ‘continue to hold’ for Rohingya (pictured last month) still in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state. These include causing serious bodily harm and inflicting conditions designed to destroy the Rohingya
Yanghee Lee, the UN special investigator on human rights in Myanmar, said she and many others in the international community hoped the situation under Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi ‘would be vastly different from the past – but it is really not that much different from the past’.
Last month, Dorsey came under fire after a picture of him holding a poster saying ‘smash Brahminical patriarchy’, referring to the highest Hindu caste, went viral.
Twitter apologized and expressed regret over the incident, which some Indians have called ‘hate-mongering’.
The picture, which was shared on Twitter by a journalist who was part of group of women journalists, activists and writers whom Dorsey met during a visit to India, had him clutching a poster of a woman holding up a banner with the line that offended many Indians.
Last month, Dorsey (pictured in India in November) came under fire after a picture of him holding a poster saying ‘smash Brahminical patriarchy’, referring to the highest Hindu caste, went viral
The picture (above), which was shared on Twitter by a journalist who was part of group of women journalists, activists and writers whom Dorsey met during a visit to India, had him clutching a poster of a woman holding up a banner with the line that offended many Indians
‘The sentiments expressed on the poster do not reflect the views of Twitter as a company or Jack as the CEO, and we regret that this picture has detracted from an otherwise insightful trip to India,’ a Twitter spokeswoman said at the time.
She said Twitter had hosted a closed-door discussion and one of the participants had shared her experience as a low-caste Dalit woman. At the conclusion of the session she gifted the poster to the Twitter CEO.
Several prominent Indians, including T.V. Mohandas Pai, a former finance chief of software exporter Infosys, accused Dorsey of ‘hate-mongering’ against Brahmins.
‘Tomorrow if @jack is given a poster with anti Semitic messages in a meeting, will his team allow him to hold it up?,’ Pai tweeted.
‘Why is that any different? Inciting hate against any community is wrong.’
Twitter India said at the time that the poster had been handed to Dorsey by a Dalit activist when it hosted the discussion with a group of women to know more about their experience using Twitter.
It added the poster was a ‘tangible reflection of our company’s efforts to see, hear, and understand all sides of important public conversations that happen on our service around the world’.