Meta removes against Myanmar military accounts following advocacy report

Mizzima

Meta removed 109 Facebook pages, profiles, and groups linked to Myanmar’s military junta, Mytel and its agents, MECtel agents, and accounts spreading propaganda from MRTV and MWD, following a report by the advocacy group Justice For Myanmar (JFM), the organization announced.

The JFM statement continues as follows.

The action was taken under a ban on military controlled businesses and media that Facebook’s parent company, Meta, implemented in 2021.

Mytel and MECtel are both telecommunications networks that are part of the military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), under war criminal and junta head Min Aung Hlaing. MEC is sanctioned by the EU, UK, USA, Australia and Canada.

The two telecommunications networks generate revenue for the military and are used for digital surveillance, aiding and abetting the junta’s ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

While Facebook has removed Mytel and other military business accounts numerous times, they keep reappearing in an attempt by military businesses to market and sell products and services, sometimes using different names to evade identification.

Junta propaganda channels have also been removed by other social media platforms, limiting their ability to livestream and spread hate speech and disinformation.

In the lead up to the junta’s sham election, MRTV was removed from the video streaming platforms Twitch and Kick, while MWD was removed from TikTok.

However, more action is needed to block the junta online.

We demand Alphabet, Apple, TikTok and Telegram ban the Myanmar military junta and its businesses from their platforms!