(MENAFN- Arab News) Facebook is coming under scrutiny in Myanmar as an unwitting platform for a rising tide of hate speech following a new wave of Buddhist-Muslim bloodshed in the former junta-run country.

The social media site is hugely popular among netizens in the once-isolated nation where it has become the prime means of sharing news and information for a small but growing Internet community.

But new freedoms under a quasi-civilian government have opened the flood gates for incendiary Internet comment.

A blog alleging the rape of a Buddhist woman by two Muslim men sparked an Internet firestorm last week that led to a riot in the second-largest city Mandalay the clearest link yet between surging hate speech online and clashes on the streets.

The unrest which left two dead raised fears that anti-Muslim violence that had previously gripped more remote parts of the diverse country for two years could spread to other major cities including Yangon.

'There is petrol spilled across this country so if there is a spark anywhere it could explode" said blogger and former political prisoner Nay Phone Latt.

Facebook went offline in the country for two straight nights during the recent violence although the government did not confirm speculation that it had used old junta techniques to curb the spread of inflammatory comment on the Internet.

Facebook said it was aware of the reports of outages but noted that its site was now working normally.

'It appears our service is available for the people in Myanmar" a company spokesperson told AFP declining to provide details of the social network's activities in the country.

The Internet giant 'does not permit hate speech" according to its published policy standards nor does it allow content that poses a 'direct threat to public safety."

But the firm relies heavily on users to flag inflammatory content like Nay Phone Latt's group Panzagar which means 'Flower Speech." It has up to 20 volunteers who monitor and report offending Myanmar-language accounts.

A senior official from the Myanmar president's office told AFP that the authorities had held urgent talks with Facebook international technical staff during the Mandalay violence 'to reduce incitement rumors on the social network and hate speech."