Myanmar army chief banned from Facebook after UN genocide report
The social media site has been criticised for becoming a ‘beast’ in the country by allowing the army to use it to spread hate speech against Rohingya Muslims
Yangon — Facebook banned Myanmar’s army chief and other top military brass on Monday after a UN investigation recommended they face prosecution for genocide for a crackdown on Rohingya Muslims. The site is the prime source of news and information for many in a country that only recently came online following nearly half a century of military rule. But it has also been a platform for the army and Buddhist hardliners to spread hate speech and incendiary posts against the stateless Rohingya and other minorities. The site aired support for the military’s bloody "clearance operations" last year that forced about 700,000 Rohingya over the border into Bangladesh. UN investigators lambasted the platform earlier this year, saying it had morphed into a "beast" in Myanmar. In recent months the tech giant has embarked on a huge PR campaign, admitting it has often been too slow to take down inflammatory posts. It blacklisted two firebrand Buddhist monks and an Islamophobic group notorious for sp...
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