Facebook on Monday said it has decided to ban 20 people, including military officials, and organisations from Myanmar from using the social media network. Facebook said these entities have been banned to prevent the spread of “hate and misinformation” given the ethnic violence in the country.
“Specifically, we are banning 20 Burmese individuals and organizations from Facebook — including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and the military’s Myawady television network,” Facebook said in a blog post.
The social media network’s action came hours after a United Nations report said that Myanmar’s top military generals should be prosecuted for genocide against the Rohingya population in the country’s Rakhine state. The report named Min Aung Hlaing and five others.
Facebook said that it has also banned 52 pages followed by 12 million people, and one Instagram account.
“We have also removed 46 pages and 12 accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook,” the company said. “During a recent investigation, we discovered that they used seemingly independent news and opinion Pages to covertly push the messages of the Myanmar military. This type of behavior is banned on Facebook because we want people to be able to trust the connections they make.”
Facebook spokesperson Ruchika Budhraja told Reuters that it is the first time the firm has banned military officers. She said the bans cannot be appealed.
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