NAYPYITAW, 09 December 2021, (TON): Facebook said “it will ban companies linked to Myanmar’s military from operating on its platform, just hours after lawyers filed a $150 billion class action lawsuit against the company on behalf of Rohingya refugees.”

The page of telecoms operator Mytel, part owned by the military, was among those removed, and a Facebook official told Myanmar Now the company had taken action against “hundreds” of other accounts and pages linked to military-controlled businesses.

The social media giant, now officially called Meta, said that the move expands an existing ban on military pages. The company had resisted calls from activists to enforce such a ban for years. 

Rafael Frankel, Facebook’s Director of Policy for APAC Emerging Countries, said in a statement “the new ban was based on extensive documentation by the international community of these businesses’ direct role in funding the Tatmadaw’s ongoing violence and human rights abuses.”

Frankel said “the company will use a 2019 UN Fact-Finding Mission report on the economic interests of the Myanmar military to identify companies that should be removed.”