Facebook removes Myanmar military's primary page; Cites repeated policy violations
Facebook has punished the Myanmar military establishment after it led the recent coup that ousted the elected government. The social media giant removed the military establishment's eponymously named Facebook page Tatmadaw, which roughly translates to True News Information Team. Facebook cited "repeated violations" of its nebulous and often selectively applied community rules against inciting and coordinating violence. The page has been unavailable since Sunday.
Facebook didn't specify if any particular incident had prompted the ban, but the move came hours after the Myanmar Police killed two protesters. However, this isn't the first time that Facebook has targeted the Myanmar military. It had also banned the army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who led the recent coup, along with hundreds of pages linked to the military back in 2018.
"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," read Facebook's official statement on its recent actions against the Myanmar military coup.
Facebook had banned the military page after it was used to warn protesters and allege that the Aung San Suu Kyi led National League for Democracy's (NLD) party's election win was fraudulent. No corroborative proof was furnished according to reports. Earlier this month, the military imposed a year long state of emergency after detaining Suu Kyi and other members of the NLD party.
Back in November last year, Facebook had also banned up to 70 fake accounts allegedly belonging to the Myanmar military. The social media giant claimed that the accounts were used to spread misinformation ahead of the national elections. The company's offensive against the military came after widespread criticism directed at Facebook for not doing enough to prevent the spread of hate speech in Myanmar.
