In Myanmar, Facebook restricts military profiles after the coup

In Myanmar

The goal is to limit the spread of fake news on alleged electoral fraud that the army attributes to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy

(Photo by Aung Kyaw Htet / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images) Following the military coup that took place in early February, Facebook has decided that it will limit some social profiles in Myanmar to stem fake news and prevent posts from causing unrest. The platform's operations center has intensified its activity, involving citizens and local experts to monitor the situation. And in the past few hours it has decided to reduce the visibility of posts, pages and profiles related to the military who continue to launch accusations of alleged electoral fraud by the National League for Democracy (Ndl), party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won the last election to justify the coup.



The social network has therefore opted not to recommend these profiles to its users anymore. The measures will be applied in particular to the Facebook page of the Tatmadaw Information Team (Tatmadaw is the official name of the Myanmar army) and to the account of its manager, General Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the military.

Beyond to limit the profiles that spread fake news, the director of public policies of Facebook in Southeast Asia, Rafael Frankel, explained that the social network is committed to protecting freedom of expression and letting citizens tell on the social network freely what is happening in their country.