FB bans military accounts:
Crackdown follows aftermath of coup
SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook says it has banned Myanmar’s military and military-controlled state and media entities from its platforms, weeks after the military overthrew the country’s fragile democratic government.
The move plunged the social network directly into Myanmar’s postcoup politics — and left little question that it was picking sides in a pitched political battle.
The army seized power this month after alleging fraud in a Nov 8 election swept by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), detaining her and much of the party leadership.
At least three protesters and one policeman have been killed in violence at rallies.
The US tech giant said it would also ban all “Tadmadaw-linked commercial entities” from advertising on its platforms.
It said the decision to ban the Myanmar army came due to “exceptionally severe human rights abuses and the clear risk of future military-initiated violence in Myanmar”, as well as the army’s repeated history of violating Facebook’s rules, including since the coup.
The military government could not immediately be reached for comment.
Facebook acted after facing criticism for years over how Myanmar’s military has used the site, including to incite hatred against the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority group. Since the coup earlier this month, which ousted Ms Suu Kyi and returned Myanmar to full military rule, the military has repeatedly shut off the internet and cut access to major social media sites, including Facebook.
The social network took the Myanmar military’s main news page and another state TV network page offline a few days ago.
It also took down the official accounts of senior Myanmar military leaders who were linked to the Rohingya violence in 2018. But plenty of other military-linked pages were still online.
Now, in taking further action, Facebook has made it clear that it is making a political judgement. In a statement, the company said it was banning “remaining” accounts linked to the military because the coup was “an emergency”.
“Events since the Feb 1 coup, including deadly violence, have precipitated a need for this ban,” the company said. It added that the risks of letting the Myanmar military remain on Facebook and Instagram “are too great”. It said the military would be barred indefinitely.
The action underscores the difficulties Facebook faces over what it allows on its site. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has long championed freedom of speech above all else, positioning the site as merely a platform and technology service that would not get in the way of governmental or social disputes. But Mr Zuckerberg has been increasingly scrutinised by lawmakers, regulators and users for that stance and for allowing hate speech, misinformation and content that incites violence to flourish on Facebook.
Over time, Facebook has become more activist over what is posted on its platform, especially in the past year with the US election. Last year, it cracked down on pages and posts about the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. And last month, Facebook barred then-President Donald Trump from using the service, at least through the remainder of his term, after he urged his supporters to take a stand against the results of the election, leading to an insurrection at the US Capitol. Mr Trump remains unable to post on Facebook.
Many of these moves have been too little, too late, critics have said.