Facebook said Thursday it had banned Myanmar’s military from using its platforms with immediate effect as weeks of mass demonstrations in the Southeast Asian country continue after the military took power.
“Events since the Feb. 1 coup, including deadly violence, have increased the need for this ban,” Facebook said in a blog post. “We think the risks of letting the Tatmadaw (the Myanmar army) on Facebook and Instagram are too great.”
The military seized power this month after alleged fraud in a Nov. 8 election by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which detained her and much of the party leadership.
At least three protesters and a police officer were killed in violent rallies.
The US tech giant said it would also prohibit all “commercial entities linked to Tatmadaw” from advertising on its platforms.
It said the decision to ban the Myanmar military was the result of “exceptionally grave human rights violations and the apparent risk of future military-initiated violence in Myanmar,” as well as the military’s repeated history of violating the military. rules of Facebook, also since the coup.
The military government was not immediately available for comment.
Meanwhile, members of a group supporting Myanmar’s military junta attacked people protesting in Yangon on Thursday. At least several people were injured in the attacks in the largest city in Myanmar.
Photos and videos on social media showed the attacks and injuries in downtown Yangon as police assisted without intervention. The attackers fired catapults and carried iron rods, knives and other sharp objects.
Facebook is widely used in Myanmar and is one of the ways the junta has communicated with people, despite an official move to ban the platform in the early days of the coup.
Facebook has been in contact with civil rights activists and democratic political parties in Myanmar in recent years and has pushed back against the military after facing international criticism for failing to conduct online hate speech campaigns.
Facebook plays an outsized role in Myanmar, where it is synonymous with the Internet for many residents. United Nations researchers say Facebook allowed the platform to be used by radical Buddhist nationalists and members of the military to fuel a campaign of violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority, of whom 700,000 fled the crackdown in 2017. the army. I.
The junta has been trying to block Facebook and other social media platforms since taking power, but its efforts have proven ineffective. For more than a week, the internet connection has also been switched off from 1 a.m.
The military says it has taken power because last November’s election was marked by widespread voting irregularities, a claim refuted by the state election commission, whose members have since been replaced.
The junta has said it will rule under a state of emergency for a year and then hold new elections.