Facebook bans Myanmar military commander for inciting violence

Image: Ahmed Salahuddin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Facebook has just removed a number of Facebook pages belonging to individuals and groups in Myanmar for spreading hate speech and fake news against Rohingya Muslims in the country.

In a post titled “Removing Myanmar Military Officials From Facebook” on its Newsroom site, Facebook announced it had removed 52 Pages,18 accounts, and an Instagram profile related to spreading the type of misinformation used to incite violence and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. 

To drive home just how influential these Pages were, Facebook pointed out that the Pages were followed by close to 12 million people in total. In Myanmar, a country with a population of 50 million people, its estimated that 30 million use Facebook.

Perhaps the biggest news comes from just exactly who they are banning from their platform. “Specifically, we are banning 20 individuals and organizations from Facebook in Myanmar,” said Facebook, “including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.” This would mark the very first time that the company has banned a state official from using Facebook. 

In addition to the Myanmar military command-in-chief, Facebook announced it was removing accounts belonging to the military’s Myawady TV network, as well as Pages presenting itself as independent news but in reality was covertly pushing Myanmar military propaganda. 

The company also announced that while the Pages and profiles have been removed, they will be preserving the related data, which includes the content posted on these accounts.

The United Nations has been critical of Facebook for the role it has played in the spread of ethnic violence in Myanmar. Just earlier today, the U.N. Human Rights Council released its Report of Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar and had this to say about Facebook:

“The role of social media is significant. Facebook has been a useful instrument for those seeking to spread hate, in a context where for most users Facebook is the Internet. Although improved in recent months, Facebook’s response has been slow and ineffective. The extent to which Facebook posts and messages have led to real-world discrimination and violence must be independently and thoroughly examined. The Mission regrets that Facebook is unable to provide country-specific data about the spread of hate speech on its platform, which is imperative to assess the adequacy of its response.”

In it’s post about the banned accounts, Facebook acknowledged the report and admitted that “while we were too slow to act, we’re now making progress.” Facebook said they are now working “with better technology to identify hate speech, improved reporting tools, and more people to review content.”