Facebook Bans Myanmar Military accounts after coup

Yangoon, 25/2: Facebook has decided to ban the Myanmar military from Facebook and Instagram in a late move. Along with the main page managed by the military, Facebook has also taken action against a number of linked accounts as well as accounts run by entities connected with the Myanmar military. The step came days after the Myanmar military carried out a coup in the country.

In a post, Facebook said: “Today, we are banning the remaining Myanmar military (“Tatmadaw”) and military-controlled state and media entities from Facebook and Instagram, as well as ads from military-linked commercial entities.”

Facebook said that to identify the entities and pages that it needed to ban them, it was relying on a 2019 report prepared by the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission that looked at the role of misinformation in the sectarian violence which has plagued Myanmar.

On Wednesday night, Facebook noted that Tatmadaw has a history of “exceptionally severe human rights abuses” and there was a “clear risk of future military-initiated violence in Myanmar.”

“This action builds on the steps we have taken in recent years to prevent the Tatmadaw from abusing our platform,” said the company. “Among these are: banning 20 military-linked individuals and organizations in 2018, including Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, for their role in severe human rights violations; and removing at least six Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior networks run by the Tatmadaw from 2018 to 2020.”