The minister was not immediately reachable for comment.īy Wednesday, both his account and the post were taken down.Ī spokesman for the military did not respond to multiple calls for comment.Ī woman uses her mobile phone to check Facebook in Yangon on Thursday.
Reuters could not determine their provenance.Īnd just two days before the coup, the new military-installed information minister, Chit Hlaing, shared a story purporting to be from Radio Free Myanmar, which Facebook banned after it was used in anti-Rohingya disinformation campaigns.
Some of the pages published coordinated posts criticizing or threatening politicians like Suu Kyi as well as journalists and activists.įacebook took down dozens of the accounts on Wednesday, shortly before being shut down. The posts started in October and continued after the election in the 48 hours before the coup, many of the pages called for military intervention.Īfter the coup, those pages turned to posts accusing the ousted government of fraud and justifying the takeover, the review showed. In 2018, it banned army chief Min Aung Hlaing - now Myanmar’s military ruler - and 19 other senior officers and organizations, and took down hundreds of pages and accounts run by military members for coordinated inauthentic behavior.Īhead of Myanmar’s November election, 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.Ī Reuters review early this week found dozens of pages and accounts alleging election fraud - the reason given by the army for seizing power. In Myanmar, Facebook in recent years has engaged with civil rights activists and democratic political parties and pushed back against the military after coming under heavy international criticism for failing to contain online hate campaigns. The service has mostly avoided shutdowns outside of countries such as China, where it has long been blocked, but currently faces pressure in India, Turkey and elsewhere.Ī Myanmar soldier sits inside a military vehicle in Yangon, Myanmar, on Tuesday. In nearby Vietnam, for example, Facebook recently acquiesced to government demands that it censor more political criticism to avoid a blockade.
Japan's Kirin to terminate Myanmar beer alliance following coupįacebook will have to decide how to play the delicate balance of protecting the democratic politicians and activists versus cooperating with the new regime to get services restored - an especially acute example of the political dilemmas the company faces worldwide.
After coup, Myanmar's youth weigh defiance against crackdown fearsįacebook disrupted in Myanmar as U.N.