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| Myanmar temporarily bans the use of the Facebook platform |
Days after the army launched a military coup, the local Myanmar telecom company temporarily shut down the Facebook platform until midnight on February 7, until Myanmar's military government ordered it.
The report shows that people cannot access Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp through MPT, Myanmar's largest state-owned telecom operator.
The government claims that the social platform, which has about 27 million Facebook users out of more than 50 million people in Myanmar, has contributed to instability in the country.
As the online maintenance group explained, these people rely on the platform to share and organize information.
The ban is in effect until midnight on the seventh of February. A Facebook spokesperson said: We know that some people are currently unable to access Facebook.
He added: We urge the authorities to restore contact so that the people of Myanmar can communicate with their families and friends and receive important information.
The move was rocky in Myanmar, where General Motors (Min Aung Lai) arranged for the military to arrest the country's elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and declared a national emergency a week later.
Aung San Suu Kyi's party won the country's elections by an overwhelming majority, winning 346 of the 476 seats in the general election.
The opposition Unity and Development Party, which is linked to the military, rejected the election results on the grounds of widespread fraud.
Facebook has banned the account linked to Myawaddy TV, which has been showing the military's actions to an audience of more than 33,000 viewers since at least the early 2020s.
A Facebook spokesperson said: The company is closely following political events in Myanmar and is also working to end disinformation and content that may cause more tension.
Facebook has a complicated history with Myanmar as the company has long been accused of not doing enough to contain the spread of false information in the country. A 2018 report found that the company helped increase calls to violence.