Facebook is taking action in Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country where the social network has been used to incite racial tension and\u00a0violence, after it banned four armed groups from its service.<\/p>\n
The U.S. company said in a blog post<\/a> that it has booted the groups \u2014 the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Kachin Independence Army (KIO) and the Ta\u2019ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) \u2014 and that \u201call related praise, support and representation\u201d will be removed.<\/p>\n The four groups make up the\u00a0Northern Alliance, and are\u00a0among the many<\/a>\u00a0Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs)\u00a0that exist in Myanmar, which was\u00a0under military rule until elections in 2015 partially opened the country.<\/p>\n Explaining that the groups have violated its terms of service, Facebook said<\/a>:<\/p>\n There is clear evidence that these organizations have been responsible for attacks against civilians and have engaged in violence in Myanmar, and we want to prevent them from using our services to further inflame tensions on the ground.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n We recognize that the sources of ethnic violence in Myanmar are incredibly complex and cannot be resolved by a social media company, but we also want to do the best we can to limit incitement and hate that furthers an already deadly conflict.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In recent times, the MNDAA was blamed for at least 30 deaths<\/a>, including civilians, in 2017 during a skirmish\u00a0with security forces on the northern border with China \u2014 the group responded at the time using a Facebook group \u2014 while, in January of this year, the AA was said<\/a> to have\u00a0killed 13 government troops as part of an attack on\u00a0Independence Day. Last month, the government called<\/a> for a cease-fire due to an apparent 13 incidents of fighting between\u00a0EAOs.<\/p>\n The internet only became available and affordable to people in Myanmar after 2015, and already swathes of the country has flocked to Facebook, which is widely heralded as \u2018the internet\u2019 in the country.\u00a0Facebook has some 20 million users in Myanmar,\u00a0that\u2019s nearly all of the country\u2019s internet users and nearly 40 percent of the population.<\/p>\n That digital revolution has allowed anyone to sign up to reach audiences and spread messages.\u00a0That\u2019s true across the world, but particularly extreme in Myanmar, where the country\u2019s religious conflict has expanded into the digital arena in a short space of time only to exacerbate\u00a0the problems.<\/p>\n Since August 2017, an estimated 700,000\u00a0Rohingya Muslims are said to have fled Myanmar following the destruction of their homes and persecution in the northern Rakhine province. Much of the violence is reported to have been state-led.\u00a0A UN fact-finding mission last year concluded that Facebook\u00a0played a \u201cdetermining role\u201d<\/a> in inciting the genocide.<\/p>\n In response, Facebook has introduced new security features and announced plans to increase its team of Burmese language content\u00a0translators to 100 people. While it doesn\u2019t intend to open an office in Myanmar due to security concerns, it has ramped up its efforts to expel bad actors. Beyond today\u2019s removals, it has taken down\u00a0scores of accounts and groups<\/a>\u00a0and, among others, removed the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and military-owned TV network Myawady from\u00a0its platform.<\/p>\n But still, those on the ground are critical<\/a>. Facebook, they said, still isn\u2019t fully committed to Myanmar, it is moving too slow and it is asking too much of the volunteers and civic groups that have offered their assistance.<\/p>\n For one thing, the social network was rounded criticized<\/a> after CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested that it was using AI to remove hate speech in Myanmar. The company was, in fact, reliant\u00a0on locals reporting the content before it took action, a process that took days.<\/p>\n To skeptics, the latest removals look like more \u2018whack-a-mobile\u2019 tactics to remove problems only once they have become problems. In banning (EAOs), Facebook has set a precedent that could sweep up other legitimate organizations based on the actions of minorities within their ranks, government claims or other situations. Some EAOs act as proxy governments in certain parts of the country.<\/p>\n This is dumb on so many levels. Facebook has shown they’re completely incapable of playing whack-a-mole with problematic content, and AI interventions drown out legitimate, terms-non-violating user material. In this fell swoop, they’ll arguably be silencing civil society voices<\/p>\n \u2014 Kayleigh E. Long (@ayleighk) February 5, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Each colored blob on this map of Myanmar is the claimed turf of a different armed group \u2014 each defending a different ethnicity. Strangely, Facebook is banning only four of these groups. Four that happen to be particularly hated by the army. Rationale unclear. pic.twitter.com\/knOzjGr4iW<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Patrick Winn (@pwinn5) February 5, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
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