YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Social media giant Facebook announced on Thursday that it is banning all accounts related to the military in Myanmar, as well as ads from military-controlled companies following the military’s takeover of power on February 1st.
In a statement, he said he treated the post-coup situation in Myanmar as an “emergency”, explaining that the ban was precipitated by coup events, including “deadly violence”.
Facebook’s action comes as diplomatic efforts to resolve the political crisis in Myanmar have intensified and protests have continued in Yangon and other cities, demanding that the country’s coup leaders resign and bring back Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. to power.
Facebook has already banned several military-related accounts since the coup, including army-controlled Myawaddy TV and state-owned television broadcaster MRTV.
The bans are also applied on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.
Facebook and other social platforms were heavily criticized in 2017, when right-wing groups said they had not acted enough to stop the hate speech against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority.
The army launched a brutal counterinsurgency operation that year that led more than 700,000 Rohingya to seek safety in neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain in refugee camps. Myanmar security forces burned villages, killed civilians and engaged in mass rape in their campaign, which the World Court is investigating as a crime of genocide.
Facebook in 2018 banned the accounts of several military leaders in Myanmar, including senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who led this month’s coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party. The general leads the junta now acting as a government,
The junta tried to block Facebook and other social platforms, but its efforts proved ineffective. For more than a week, he also turned off internet access at night from 1 in the morning
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi visited the Thai capital, Bangkok, on Wednesday and held three-way talks with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai and Myanmar’s new foreign minister, retired Army Colonel Wunna Maung Lwin, who also traveled. in Thailand. The meeting was part of Marsudi’s efforts to coordinate a regional response to the crisis triggered by the military takeover in Myanmar.
Indonesia and fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are trying to promote some concessions from the Myanmar army that could ease tensions to prevent violence. The regional group, which also includes Thailand and Myanmar, believes that dialogue with generals is a more effective way to obtain concessions than more confrontational methods, such as sanctions often advocated by Western nations.
In a virtual press conference after his return to Indonesia, Marsudi said he expressed his country’s concern about the situation in Myanmar.
“I urge all parties to restrain themselves and not use violence. . . to avoid casualties and bloodshed, ”she said, stressing the need for dialogue, reconciliation and confidence-building.
Marsudi said he had sent the same message to a group of elected members of parliament in Myanmar who had been barred from taking the military. MPs belong to Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won from scratch in last November’s election, which would have given him a second five-year term.
After the coup, the group, called the Committee representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the name of the combined chambers of parliament, announced that it was convening an online session and called on the UN and foreign countries to treat it as the legitimate government of Myanmar.
It has received growing support from the Myanmar protest movement, but little or no foreign approval. Indonesia’s recognition that the group has a role to play could pave the way for negotiations between the ruling junta in Myanmar and its opponents.
Opposition to the coup continues inside Myanmar, with large demonstrations in many cities and towns.
The anti-coup demonstrations had a new look on Thursday, with protesters smearing a traditional yellow paste on their faces as a proclamation of their national identity.
Outside the Hledan Center in Yangon, where about 1,000 people gathered to keep up the pressure on the new military regime, protesters wore the mixture, called thanaka, on wide sides on the forehead, cheeks and nose.
Some had slogans written on patterns.
Thanaka is made from pulverized tree bark. It is said to be good for the skin and to protect it from sunburn. It is ubiquitous in Myanmar and is as much a symbol of its culture as a sarong-like longyi skirt or the Shwedagon temple in Yangon.
A tense conflict took place on Wednesday in the country’s second largest city, Mandalay, where police officers holding riot shields and swing guns blocked the path of about 3,000 teachers and students.
After about two hours, during which the protesters sang protest songs and listened to speeches condemning the coup, the crowd withdrew.
On Saturday, police and soldiers fatally shot two people in Mandalay while breaking a strike of doc workers.
The military says it has taken power because the November elections last year were marked by widespread voting irregularities, a claim that was refuted by the state election commission, whose members have since been replaced by the governing board.
Despite Suu Kyi’s landslide victory at the polls, the army blocked parliament from convening and detained her and President Win Myint and other top members of her government.
The junta said it would rule for a year in a state of emergency and then hold new elections.