The Myanmar military blocked Facebook for the sake of 'stability' after activists began mobilizing on the platform
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Bill Bostock
Feb 4, 2021, 18:17 IST
Soldiers guard on a blockaded road to Myanmar's parliament in Naypyidaw.STR/AFP via Getty Images
Myanmar's military blocked Facebook on Thursday, claiming it was to stop misinformation.
The military seized power in a coup on Monday and detained hundreds of politicians.
Facebook is popular in Myanmar and activists had been using it to mobilize against the junta.
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The military junta that seized control of Myanmar in a coup has said it is blocking Facebook to ensure "stability," after activists began using it to mobilize.
Myanmar's military, known as the Tatmadaw, declared a yearlong state of emergency on Monday and detained hundreds of lawmakers, including the de facto ruler Aung San Suu Kyi.
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MPT, the state-owned telecom company, blocked Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp on Thursday, NetBlocks told Reuters.
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Insider has contacted Facebook for comment.
Half of Myanmar's population of 53 million people use Facebook, Reuters reported.
In justifying the block, the ministry said: "The people who are troubling the country's stability ... are spreading fake news and misinformation and causing misunderstanding among people by using Facebook," according to Reuters.
The first major protest against the coup took place in Mandalay, northern Myanmar, but it was quickly dispersed by law enforcement, The Guardian reported.
In November 2018, Facebook said it had not done enough to censor hate speech posted on the platform against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.
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Since August 2017, as many as 750,000 Rohingya have been driven into Bangladesh amid a crackdown overseen by Suu Kyi. Hundreds of Rohingya villages have reportedly been burnt across Rakhine state, with some reportedly raped and killed.
"I think it is clear that people were trying to use our tools in order to incite real harm," CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Vox in 2018.
In Myanmar, "everything is done through Facebook," Yanghee Lee, the UN investigator for Myanmar, said in March 2018.
"I'm afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended," she added.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday met to issue a joint declaration condemning the coup in Myanmar, but China and Russia blocked the statement, with their UN ambassadors saying they needed approval from Beijing and Moscow.
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