The move puts the social network squarely on the side of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement after years of criticism over how the military has used the site.
Soldiers set up barricades in Yangon, Myanmar, this month as tens of thousands gathered to protest the coup that ousted the civilian government.Credit... The New York Times
Facebook said on Wednesday that it had barred Myanmar’s military from its platforms, weeks after the country’s fragile democratic government was overthrown in a military coup.
The move, which also bars military-owned businesses from advertising on Facebook, plunged the social network more directly into Myanmar’s post-coup politics. The decision left little question that the company was taking the side of a pro-democracy movement against a military government that had abruptly seized power.
Facebook acted after years of criticism over how Myanmar’s military has used the site, including to incite hatred against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority group. Since the coup early this month, which ousted the civilian leader Daw Aung San 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.
But even as the generals took measures to block Facebook, they have continued to use the platform as a channel to distribute propaganda. One of the first statements by the coup leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, after the takeover was posted on the military’s official Facebook page.
ImageA poster of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who led the coup, was placed on the street during a protest in Yangon last week.Credit...The New York Times
The social network later removed that page and another state TV network page. It also took down
the official accounts of senior Myanmar military leaders who were
linked to the violence against the Rohingya. In 2018, Facebook barred General Min Aung Hlaing from its site because of his links to human rights violations and social media manipulation.
The Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar military is known, has typically responded to these bans by simply creating fresh accounts.
For
years, members of the military were the prime operatives behind a
systematic campaign on Facebook that demeaned the Rohingya as foreigners
illegally living in Myanmar, even though many had been there for
generations.
In 2017, the Tatmadaw launched a military campaign
that led to the deaths of thousands of Rohingya and forced more than
700,000 to flee the country. At the time, United Nations officials
called it “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
Facebook later said it should have done more to prevent its platform from being used to “foment division and incite offline violence.”
By
blocking advertising from military-owned businesses, Facebook’s most
recent action also takes aim at the military’s economic influence. The
generals run an opaque network of business holdings that do everything
from brewing beer to providing telecom services.
Since the
generals have already restricted Facebook access, the ultimate impact of
the moves the company announced on Wednesday may be limited. But some
companies in Myanmar have a track record of spending big on the social
network.
Last year, Facebook removed a number of accounts and pages after it linked
Myanmar’s military-owned telecom services provider, Mytel, to the
spreading of false information — often with fake accounts —
and other violations of its terms.
ImageProtesters last week in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.Credit...The New York Times
Mytel, in cooperation with a public relations firm, appeared to spend
over $1 million on advertising to spread false criticism of rival
telecom firms, according to Facebook. More than 200,000 people followed
pages that accused Mytel rivals of imminent plans to leave the market
and other failures.
Advocacy groups have faulted Facebook for
failing to act more quickly and comprehensively in pushing back after
the Feb. 1 coup in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
Donald Trump was kicked off Facebook for inciting violence and an
attempted coup, but the Burmese military are allowed to stay on Facebook
despite committing genocide and holding a coup,” wrote Mark Farmaner, director of the advocacy group Burma Campaign UK, in a statement on Feb. 16.
“It’s time to kick the Burmese military off Facebook,” he added.
Mr.
Farmaner welcomed Facebook’s latest decision, but said the social
network should have gone further and banned the pages of companies owned
by the Tatmadaw.
Facebook took pains on Wednesday to clarify the
rationale for a ban that could have long-lasting political
ramifications for the company. In a statement, it said it was banning
“remaining” accounts linked to the military because the coup was “an
emergency,” before citing the military’s long history of human rights
abuses, violence and social media manipulation.
“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 were “too great” and
that the military would be barred indefinitely.
Image“We need democracy” was written on a street in Yangon.Credit...The New York TimesMr. Zuckerberg has been increasingly scrutinized 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 increasingly willing to act against what
is posted on its platform, especially over the past year in connection
with the U.S. election. Last year, it cracked down on pages and posts
about the QAnon conspiracy theory movement.
And last month, Facebook barred President Donald J. Trump from using the service,
at least through the remainder of his term, after a mob of his
supporters, whom he had urged to protest the election results, stormed
the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Mr. Trump remains unable to post on
Facebook.
Many of these moves have been too little, too late, critics have said.
During Myanmar’s protests,
organizers have used Facebook to coordinate marches, to share footage
of demonstrations and violent military crackdowns, and to distribute
memes mocking the coup leaders. The military, in turn, has pushed its
own message, questioning recent election results and claiming to have evidence of voter fraud.
The
military’s use of Facebook pages has appeared to be directed mainly at
its lower ranks, to provide a rationale for the coup and shore up
support. The bans from Facebook do not appear to affect the personal
accounts of military officers or the many closed chat groups that feed
the nationalist narrative popular among soldiers.
Facebook became
central to day-to-day life in Myanmar after the general public began
gaining access to the internet about a decade ago, when the country
opened up to the outside world.
As of Thursday, at least one page linked to the military remained available on Facebook to distribute official announcements. It featured a photo of General Min Aung Hlaing, saluting in full regalia, and had 1,462 followers and 1,350 likes.
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