Facebook Bans Myanmar Military Commander-In-Chief Amid ‘Ethnic and Religious Tensions’

Facebook has banned Myanmar military officials from its social network, including the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces, for allegedly coordinating genocide and committing other atrocities.

The company announced the suspensions in an official blog post, declaring that the “ethnic violence in Myanmar has been truly horrific.”

“Today, we are taking more action in Myanmar, removing a total of 18 Facebook accounts, one Instagram account and 52 Facebook Pages, followed by almost 12 million people. We are preserving data, including content, on the accounts and Pages we have removed,” Facebook declared. “Specifically, we are banning 20 individuals and organizations from Facebook in Myanmar — including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and the military’s Myawady television network.”

“International experts, most recently in a report by the UN Human Rights Council-authorized Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, have found evidence that many of these individuals and organizations committed or enabled serious human rights abuses in the country,” the company explained. “And we want to prevent them from using our service to further inflame ethnic and religious tensions.”

“We have also removed 46 Pages and 12 accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook. During a recent investigation, we discovered that they used seemingly independent news and opinion Pages to covertly push the messages of the Myanmar military,” Facebook proclaimed. “This type of behavior is banned on Facebook because we want people to be able to trust the connections they make.”

The United Nations is calling for an international probe of Myanmar.  According to the Associated Press, ” Myanmar’s top military generals, including Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, must be investigated and prosecuted for genocide in the north of Rakhine State, as well as for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States,” a UN-backed fact-finding mission said.