(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. shouldn’t be allowed to “bury critical evidence” about how users of its platform incited genocidal violence against the Muslim minority in Myanmar, lawyers for Gambia told a U.S. judge in Washington.Lawyers for the West African country urged the court to reject the social network giant’s argument that the federal Stored Communications Act, which regulates the release of electronic communications, prohibits it from releasing the information at issue.“Congress did not pass the SCA to allow computer users to hide evidence where the service provider itself had already concluded that the account had been used fraudulently and in violation of the terms of service,” the lawyers wrote.Gambia subpoenaed Facebook for the documents as part of its case in the International Court of Justice accusing Myanmar of perpetrating genocide against its Rohingya minority.Last month, U.S. Magistrate Zia Faruqui ordered Facebook to provide Gambia with content from government-backed accounts that helped spark violence against the Rohingya. He also ordered the company to turn over related documents from its internal investigation into its role in instigating the genocide. Facebook is appealing the decision.The case is the Republic of The Gambia v. Facebook Inc., 1:20-mc-00036, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

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