- On February 1, Myanmar’s military staged a coup.
- In response to the military coup in Myanmar, Facebook is censoring accounts of the coup’s leaders.
- Facebook said the accounts “continued to spread misinformation,” forcing moderators to take action.
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On February 1, on the verge of swearing in of a newly elected government, Myanmar’s military announced a coup.
The basis of the coup, he said, were claims of widespread electoral fraud in last year’s election. Despite these claims being repeatedly debunked and election results confirmed, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party has seized power from the government after it lost the November election due to a landslide.
Facebook said it is treating the situation “as an emergency,” and is restricting communications from the Myanmar military and its military spokesman, he said this week.
The company said it will “significantly reduce the spread of all content on Facebook pages and profiles of the Myanmar military (” Tatmadaw “), which continues to spread disinformation. That includes the military spokesman and his “information team,” and could be more broadly applied “to any additional pages monitored by the military that repeatedly violate our misinformation policies,” Facebook said.
Those pages and profiles are also excluded from recommendations.
Facebook has been criticized for being too lax in its moderation efforts with politicians, especially former President Donald Trump. It was only after the attempted uprising on January 6 and subsequent messages from Trump that Facebook decided to suspend his account.
Notably, Facebook has previous experience of sensitive user moderation in Myanmar – the service played a role in the ethnic cleansing of the country’s Rohingya Muslim population, Mark Zuckerberg said in 2018.
“On a Saturday morning I got a call and we found that people were trying to spread sensational messages – in this case it was Facebook Messenger – to every side of the conflict, basically telling the Muslims, ‘Hey, there is an uprising coming soon. of the Buddhists, so get armed and go to this place. “And then the same thing on the other side,” Zuckerberg told Vox “Ezra Klein.
Facebook said it is determined not to let that happen again. “We remain vigilant for emerging trends,” the company said, “and will not hesitate to take additional action if necessary.”