FACEBOOK REMOVES MYANMAR ACCOUNTS

Facebook on Thursday said the military in Myanmar is still using the platform to sow ethnic divisions in the country, almost a year after the social media giant faced furious criticism for failing to catch a government campaign to spread disinformation about the nation’s minority Rohingya Muslims.

The company said it removed 89 accounts, 107 pages, 15 groups and five Instagram accounts over “inauthentic behavior” in Myanmar. This is the fourth time over the past year Facebook has reported takedowns of accounts linked to Myanmar’s military.

“Our investigation found that some of this activity was linked to individuals associated with the Myanmar military,” Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, wrote in a blog post.

According to Gleicher, the accounts were posting about “national and local topics, including crime, ethnic relations, celebrities, and the military.”

“We identified these accounts through our internal investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior in the region,” Gleicher wrote.

The social media giant has sought to remove violent actors and identify incendiary content for months after reports indicated Myanmar’s military officials used the platform to stoke hatred and fear as the military engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the persecuted Muslim minority.