Facebook Removes Dozens Of Accounts, Pages Over Links To Myanmar Military

Facebook has removed dozens of accounts and pages on its social networks over inauthentic activity linked to the Myanmar military, the company said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd August, 2019) Facebook has removed dozens of accounts and pages on its social networks over inauthentic activity linked to the Myanmar military, the company said.

"Today, we removed 89 Facebook accounts, 107 Facebook Pages, 15 Facebook Groups, and five Instagram accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Myanmar ... Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found that some of this activity was linked to individuals associated with the Myanmar military," the press release issued on Wednesday read.

The company noted that it was constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity in order to prevent Facebook services from being used to manipulate people.

Facebook has repeatedly removed hundreds of accounts and pages from its social networks that were allegedly linked to Myanmar's military.

Myanmar's military is blamed for committing atrocities against the Muslim Rohingya minority in the state of Rakhine, where government forces have been clashing with local insurgents since 2016. The government deployed police and military units in the region, accusing the insurgents of attacking security posts in Rakhine in 2017. The Rohingyas have been forced to flee their homes for fear of persecution.

In 2018, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar issued a report, accusing the Myanmar leadership of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.