Meta "Expulsion of Companies Supporting Myanmar Coup Military"

(Photo by AP News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Meta, the world's largest social media company (formerly Facebook), has expelled companies related to the Myanmar military junta.

On the 8th (local time), Meta issued a press release announcing that it would expand the ban on the Myanmar military's use of its platforms to all companies controlled by the military junta.

Since the coup in February, Meta has blocked Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with the military junta, its controlled institutions, and media.

Rafael Frankel, Meta's Asia-Pacific Policy Director, explained in a statement that "this action was taken after identifying companies funding the ongoing Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) violence and human rights abuses through consultations with the international community."

This move to expel military-controlled companies came just one day after the Rohingya, an ethnic minority in Myanmar, filed a $150 billion (approximately 177 trillion KRW) damages lawsuit in the US and UK, holding Facebook accountable for aiding the genocide on its platform.

The US law firm Edelson, representing the plaintiffs, filed a class-action complaint with the California court, and a separate lawsuit is also underway in the UK courts.

In the complaint, the Rohingya argued that Facebook operated algorithms that widely spread hate speech and failed to remove malicious posts, thereby spreading misinformation and extremist beliefs that incited violence and aided the 2017 Myanmar government’s genocide against the Rohingya.

In 2017, the Myanmar military committed mass killings and gang rapes with the intent of ethnic cleansing during its crackdown on the Rohingya. Over 10,000 people were killed, and 740,000 fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape the military.

Facebook, used by half of Myanmar’s 54 million population, has been the only source of information in Myanmar. The platform was flooded with hateful posts against the Rohingya, which the international community claims fueled the horrific ethnic cleansing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.