Facebook has been taking steps to help tackle the conflict in Myanmar this year. The firm has been trying to stifle the spread of “hate and misinformation” on its platform and has engaged new technology to identify hate speech and more content moderators. Facebook has now taken a drastic action, removing a total of 71…
Facebook has been taking steps to help tackle the conflict in Myanmar this year. The firm has been trying to stifle the spread of “hate and misinformation” on its platform and has engaged new technology to identify hate speech and more content moderators. Facebook has now taken a drastic action, removing a total of 71 pages ranging from 53 Pages to 18 Facebook profiles and 1 Instagram account with a cumulative total of just shy of 12 million followers.
These users include the commander inc chief of Myanmar’s Armed Forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who has recently been fingered as committing or enabling human rights violations in the country. The firm says these account closures are being done so as to prevent them from “our service to further inflame ethnic and religious tensions” on their platform.
“We continue to work to prevent the misuse of Facebook in Myanmar — including through the independent human rights impact assessment we commissioned earlier in the year.” Facebook explained on Monday, “This is a huge responsibility given so many people there rely on Facebook for information — more so than in almost any other country given the nascent state of the news media and the recent rapid adoption of mobile phones. It’s why we’re so determined to do better in the future.”
Source: Facebook
