Myanmar army figures and chief have Facebook account cancelled

UN report summoned the investigation of leading army figures including the army chief, over their alleged violent role against the Rohingya minority.

Facebook has removed and cancelled 52 pages, 18 accounts and 1 Instagram account linked to Myanmar. The southeast Asian country heavily relies on Facebook to receive their internet information. The accounts and pages were said to have been a useful instrument to spread hate and religious tension to around 12 million followers.

Facebook has never before banned any country's political or military leader from their website, and such a ban cannot be appealed. But many question whether Facebook was quick and effective enough to take action.

It could be argued that it took a genocide of the Rohingya minority for Facebook to finally act accordingly and ban the country's military leadership from its website.

The cancellation of the accounts calls to a broader discussion of social media's content moderation and in some cases, censorship. The owners of the cancelled accounts could feel that Facebook's decision has violated their right to freedom of expression. It is also worth stating that many human rights of the Rohingya minority and others have been violated since 2016, with over 1,000 deaths.