Facebook Ordered to Release Records on Closed Myanmar Accounts

WASHINGTON—A federal judge ordered Facebook Inc. on Wednesday to hand over records related to accounts it shut down in 2018 that were linked to government-backed violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar, as the social-media giant grapples with the effects content on its platform has in the real world.

The ruling, by a magistrate judge in Washington, criticized Facebook for refusing to provide the records to countries pursuing a case against Myanmar in international court, saying allowing it to withhold them “would compound the tragedy that has befallen the Rohingya.”