Facebook has pledged to restrict the widespread statistical distribution of content from Myanmar ’s military regime following a successful coup that toppled the democratically elected government on Feb. 1 . The toast come from a new blog post at Facebook ’s website that seems to implicitly recognise the voltage for authoritarians to use the social media platform in horrendous ways .
“ Facebook is treating the post in Myanmar as an emergency . Our Integrity Operations Center has been running around the clock since the takeover set out , ” Rafael Frankel , the music director of policy for Facebook ’s Asia - Pacific team , wrote lateThursday .
“ It bring together subject subject experts from across the society , include Myanmar subject with aboriginal language skills , so we can supervise and respond to any threats in real sentence , ” Frankel continued .
Protesters wearing traditional Shan dress make the three-figner salute as others hold signs during a demonstration against the Myanmar military coup in Inle Lake, Shan state on 1 December 2024.Photo: Calito/AFP (Getty Images)
Frankel explained that the Myanmar military , known as Tatmadaw , had been spreading misinformation since the coup and Facebook would be dramatically reducing the ranch of that subject , while not shun it entirely .
From the Facebook announcement :
In demarcation with our global policies on repeat offender of misinformation , we will also no longer be recommending them to people . Among other military - run account , these measures apply to the Tatmadaw Information Team ’s Facebook Page and to Tatmadaw spokesperson Brigadier - General Zaw Min Tun ’s Facebook write up . This same action will be apply to any extra pages that the military controls that repeatedly go against our misinformation policies .
We have also indefinitely suspend the ability for Myanmar government agencies to send capacity remotion requests to Facebook through our normal channels reserve for authorities around the earthly concern .
Frankel also pledged to protect the political speech of activist , journalists , and average people in Myanmar , something that could be difficult to maintain given the current politics ’s hostility to an open vane . Facebook also said it would help anyone in Myanmar “ who reasonably fear detention ” to “ secure their Facebook chronicle and data from unauthorized memory access . ” The company did n’t forthwith explain how it planned to do that , though presumably it would entail simply not handing over entropy to the government activity that Facebook has on people and governance .
Facebook took a portion of heat back in 2018 for at least partly start the genocide ofRohingya Muslimsthat was being perpetrate by the same military that now controls the country . If there ’s any silver lining in all of this it ’s that the societal media giant has hopefully learned how to better contain the spigot of hatred and misinformation on its weapons platform to minimise the scathe in Myanmar .
But it all raises the obvious question of why Facebook would have to do anything special during an emergency brake situation like this . If misinformation and hatred spoken language is a problem , why not take care of that during normal times as well ? It seems to be an eternal question for companionship like Twitter , Facebook , and YouTube . But we may never get a neat response .
FacebookMyanmarOperating systemsPoliticsSocial mediasoftware
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