Facebook announced on Thursday that it is removing all remaining Myanmar military and military-controlled pages from its website and from Instagram, which it also owns.
It said it would also block ads from military enterprises.
The decision follows a February 1 coup in which the army removed elected leaders from power and sent others to prison. Days after the coup, the military temporarily blocked access to Facebook because it was used to share comments on the coup and organize protests.
Here’s a look at the role of Facebook in Myanmar and what the ban on military pages means.
WHAT IS FACEBOOK’S ROLE IN MYANMAR?
For decades, Myanmar was one of the least connected countries with less than 5% of the population in 2012, according to the International Telecommunication Union. When telecommunications began to be deregulated by a quasi-civilian government in 2013, the price of SIM cards for mobile phones fell, opening up a new market for users.
Facebook quickly took advantage of the changes and was soon used by government agencies and retailers to communicate.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, had more than 22.3 million Facebook users in January 2020, more than 40% of the population, according to social media management platform NapoleonCat. For many people in the country, Facebook is effectively the internet.
“The role of Facebook is of great importance in the country,” said Nickey Diamond, a human rights specialist in Myanmar of the Fortify Rights group. “In Myanmar, Facebook is one of the most important communication platforms for the people.”
WHAT ISSUES FACEBOOK DISCUSSED IN MYANMAR?
The social media platform is facing accusations that they have not done enough to stop hate speech in the country.
Marzuki Darusman, head of the UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar, said in a 2018 report on violent violence that forced more than 700,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh that Facebook had ‘made a significant contribution to the level of disagreement and disagreement conflict. He added: “Hate speech is a part of it, of course.”
Under pressure from the UN and international human rights groups, Facebook banned about 20 military-linked individuals and organizations in Myanmar in 2018, including Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, for involvement in serious human rights violations.
WHY DOES FACEBOOK NOW BAN MORE MILITARY LINKED PAGES?
After the coup, Facebook said it would reduce the distribution of all content of Myanmar’s army, called the Tatmadaw, on its website, while also removing content that violates community standards, including hate speech.
Facebook announced on Thursday that it will ban all remaining military entities in Myanmar from Facebook and Instagram, as well as advertisements from military enterprises.
‘The events since the February 1 coup, including deadly violence, have created a need for this ban. “We believe the risks of allowing the Tatmadaw on Facebook and Instagram are too great,” the company said.
The ban covers the air force, the navy, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Border Affairs, said Amy Sawitta Lefevre, manager of Facebook’s communications policy.
Facebook said it would include pages contributing to public welfare, including those of the Ministry of Health and Sport and the Ministry of Education.
WHAT IMPACT WILL IT HAVE?
The decision deprives the military of its largest communications platform.
“This is a welcome and long overdue move by Facebook,” Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said in an email. ‘In a country where Facebook has been so incredibly popular, it’s a psychological blow to the military. They put in a lot of resources to use Facebook for propaganda purposes, to recruit soldiers and to raise funds. ”
Facebook said it expects the military to try to be present on the platform again.
“In such cases, we work to be as precise as possible, but we know we will miss some of them, and we will continue to refine our enforcement,” Lefevre said.
Facebook did not want to say how much revenue they expect to forgo from the loss of ads from military-affiliated companies.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Division receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.