World
Updated: February 25, 2021

Facebook Bans Myanmar Military Accounts Over Coup

By Adedayo Babatunde
February 25, 2021
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Facebook on Thursday said it has banned all the remaining accounts linked to the Myanmar military due to the junta's use of deadly force against anti-coup demonstrators.

Facebook who made this known in a statement said it also bans all "military-linked commercial entities" from advertising on the platforms.

The social media platform, however, said the ban takes effect immediately and it applies to the military and entities controlled by the armed forces on both Facebook and Instagram.

According to the statement, "Events since the February 1 coup, including deadly violence, have precipitated a need for this ban."

"We believe the risks of allowing the Tatmadaw on Facebook and Instagram are too great," it added, using the Myanmar name for the country's armed forces.

Recall that the security forces have steadily increased the use of force against a massive and largely peaceful civil disobedience campaign demanding Myanmar's junta relinquish power.

Three anti-coup protesters have been killed in demonstrations so far, while a man patrolling his Yangon neighbourhood against night arrests was also shot dead.

Facebook said its ban was intended to prevent Myanmar’s generals “from abusing our platform”.

The military has used Facebook to boost its claims that voter fraud had marred an election last November that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi had won in a landslide.

Since seizing power, the junta has arrested hundreds of anti-coup protesters, ordered nightly internet blackouts and banned social media platforms including Facebook in an effort to quell resistance.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and other top brass were booted from the platform in 2018, a year after a military-led crackdown forced around 750,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh.

In recent years, the social media giant has banned hundreds of army-linked pages after being criticised for its ineffective response to malicious posts in the country.

However, Thursday's announcement follows Facebook's decision on the weekend to ban a page run by the regime's "True News" information service.