Facebook Details Efforts to Protect Myanmar Citizens in Wake of Military Coup

Facebook shared details on steps it is taking to support the citizens of Myanmar following the military coup that occurred there Feb. 1. Director of policy for Asia-Pacific emerging countries Rafael Frankel said in a Newsroom post that the social network’s primary objectives are to: Prevent online content from being linked to offline harm.Protect freedom of expression for citizens of Myanmar.Ensure that Facebook, Messenger From Facebook and the rest of the Facebook family of applications remain online as a source of information and means of communication. Frankel said Facebook is treating the situation as an emergency, with its integrity operations center running around the clock since the coup began, bringing together subject matter experts from across the company, including Myanmar nationals with native language skills. The social network is “significantly” reducing the distribution of content from pages and profiles run by the Myanmar Military, or the Tatmadaw, due to spreading misinformation. Those pages and profiles will no longer be recommended to people. Frankel said these measures were applied to the Tatmadaw Information Team’s page and to Tatmadaw spokesperson Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun’s account, and they will be extended to any additional pages or accounts controlled by the military that repeatedly violate its policies on misinformation. Facebook also indefinitely suspended the ability for Myanmar government agencies to send content removal requests through its normal channels reserved for authorities around the world. And the social network is protecting content, including political speech, that lets the people of Myanmar express themselves and share details with the rest of the world on happenings in their country. Other steps being taken by Facebook include: Continued enforcement of its policies on coordinated inauthentic behavior (https://www.adweek.com/media/facebook-removes-2-more-networks-for-coordinated-inauthentic-behavior/), including enforcement actions taken over the past week against accounts connected to past takedowns associated with the Myanmar military.Enforcing its dangerous individuals and organizations policy to remove groups and individuals who seek to incite violence.Providing extra protections for journalists, civil society activists, human rights defenders and deposed political leaders to prevent online threats against them, as well as helping anyone who reasonably fears detention to secure their Facebook accounts and data from unauthorized access.Continued proactive removal of content that violates its community standards, especially hate speech, incitement to violence, bullying and harassment and misinformation that can lead to physical harm.Reducing distribution of content that violates its hate speech and incitement policies (which started for the country’s election last November) and content that explicitly praises or supports the coup.Removing misinformation claiming that there was widespread fraud or foreign interference in the election.Removing content that includes calls to bring weapons to any location across Myanmar. Frankel concluded, “We are closely monitoring the rapidly evolving situation in Myanmar and are in close communication with governments, institutions and non-governmental organizations that care deeply about Myanmar’s future. We are also monitoring the impact of sanctions that are likely to be imposed in the coming days and exploring additional measures that we will share soon. We join with governments, the UN and civil society around the world in calling for internet services in Myanmar to be restored immediately so that the people there can communicate with loved ones, express their political views, access important information and run their businesses.”

Politics

Facebook Details Efforts to Protect Myanmar Citizens in Wake of Military Coup

Pages, profiles run by the Tatmadaw are seeing significantly reduced distribution of their content

David Cohen

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David Cohen