Facebook bans hundreds more pages relating to Myanmar conflict
Just a week after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted he “doesn’t know enough” about the political situation in Myanmar, following his series of tone-deaf tweets applauding the country, Facebook has taken further action to stymy the calls to violence made on its platform. The network has now banned an additional 425 pages, 17 groups, 135 Facebook accounts and 15 Instagram accounts, adding to takedowns made in August and October.
The pages and groups — which included beauty, entertainment and lifestyle pages — were found to be “engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior” linked to the Myanmar military and to previously removed pages. According to Facebook, some 2.5 million people followed at least one of these pages, 6,400 people belonged to one of these groups and around 1,300 people followed one of these Instagram accounts.
Facebook says that the pages aren’t allowed under its misrepresentation policy, “because we don’t want people or organizations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing.” Indeed, Facebook has ramped up its efforts in the country — home to what the UN has identified as serious human rights abuses — after an independent report found the company had played a significant role in enabling political violence there. The company says it will continue to provide updates on the abuse it finds and removes.
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