Facebook takes down main page of Myanmar military

 

A woman looks at the Facebook logo on an iPad in this photo illustration taken June 3, 2018. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/Illustration/File Photo

 

(Reuters) - Facebook on Sunday deleted the main page of the Myanmar military under it standards prohibiting the incitement of violence, the company said, a day after two protesters were killed when police opened fire at a demonstration against the Feb 1 coup.

 

"In line with our global policies, we’ve removed the Tatmadaw True News Information Team Page from Facebook for repeated violations of our Community Standards prohibiting incitement of violence and coordinating harm," a Facebook representative said in a statement.

 

The Myanmar military is known as the Tatmadaw. Its True News page was no available on Sunday.

 

The military spokesman did not respond to a Reuters phone call seeking comment.

 

Two people were killed in Myanmar's second city Mandalay on Saturday when police and soldiers fired at protesters demonstrating against the overthrow of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, emergency workers said, the bloodiest day in more than two weeks of demonstrations.

 

Facebook in recent years has engaged with civil rights activists and democratic political parties in Myanmar and pushed back against the military after coming under heavy international criticism for failing to contain online hate campaigns.

 

In 2018, it banned army chief Min Aung Hlaing - now the military ruler - and 19 other senior officers and organisations, and took down hundreds of pages and accounts run by military members for coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

 

Ahead of November elections, Facebook announced it had taken down a network of 70 fake accounts and pages operated by members of the military that had posted either positive content about the army or criticism of Suu Kyi and her party.

 

(Reporting by Reuters staff; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-22

 

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2 hours ago, webfact said:

Facebook on Sunday deleted the main page of the Myanmar military under it standards prohibiting the incitement of violence

I bet they're quaking in their little boots.

Prohibiting the incitement of violence unless its violence Zuckerberg Condones?

Excellent work. Despots must be treated with total disregard, and never shown respect. May the youth prevail. 

The control of information is paramount. Facebook has power governments can only dream of. 

Good.

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Excellent work. Despots must be treated with total disregard, and never shown respect. May the youth prevail. 

 

I don't consider it excellent work at all. For some reason FaceBook finds it in their heart to ban the Myanmar

military - my my, 3 cheers. There is no real meaningful standards or transparency to be found in their action.

 

Meanwhile, (few examples)

1) the Chinese CCP still on FB (what about the Uyghurs)

2) Iran still on FB (death to Israel and the USA)

3) North Korea still on FB (nuclear weapons threats)

 

I'd call it selective censorship not anything to be applauded.  It is even plausible that behind the scenes

the Biden administration had Facebook take the action. What do we really know about what happened

in Myanmar except Suu Kyi out military in?  Why?  There must be "reasons", what was she up to? Election

fraud seems to be the public claim, who knows what all is happening behind the scenes.  She has also been

criticized for her policy towards the Rohingya and her cozy relationship with China.  There is definitely

a lot more going on than we know about.

 

Good chance Facebook gets banned in Myanmar, that's my prediction. (assuming the military clings to power)

 

For the record, I'm no fan of what has occurred in Myanmar.