Facebook faces a reckoning in Myanmar after blocked by military

GBNEWS24 DESK//

The Myanmar military’s shutdown of Facebook access following the ouster of the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi caps years of tension between the social media company and the most powerful institution in a nation where Facebook is used by half the population.

The junta on Wednesday banned Facebook Inc until at least Sunday after the regime’s opponents began using it to organise. A new civil disobedience page had gained nearly 200,000 followers and the support of Burmese celebrities in the days after the coup, while a related hashtag was used millions of times, reports Reuters.

“The Tatmadaw sees Facebook as their internet nemesis because it’s the dominant communication channel in the country, and has been hostile to the military,” Human Rights Watch Asia Deputy Director Phil Robertson told Reuters, referring to the country’s army.

“Since the Burmese people are rapidly moving online to organise a massive civil disobedience campaign, shuttering access becomes a top priority.”

A company spokeswoman on Thursday urged Myanmar authorities to restore access to Facebook and WhatsApp to the country’s 54 million residents.

Facebook 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.

In nearby Vietnam, for example, Facebook recently acquiesced to government demands that it censor more political criticism to avoid a blockade.

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.

In Myanmar, where the company has a small team, 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.