The skirmishes continue with Myanmar Government forces and the those organised by ethnic groups like the Kachin Independence Army who are labeled as dangerous and hindrance to peace process in the country. These groups including – the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army have been using social media to rally their causes and incite hatred and cause chaos. Facebook has finally decided to take action by banning the groups on its platform.

Taking action based on reports and complains, the social media giant justifies the decision as an effort to prevent and disrupt offline harm, Facebook will not allow organisations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or engage in violence to have a presence on its platform. As part of this rule book list of pages deemed in violation are those that are involved in terrorist activity, organised hate, mass or serial murder, human trafficking, organised violence or criminal activity. In this case, it found clear evidence that these organisations have been responsible for attacks against civilians and have engaged in violence in Myanmar.

Facebook has come under fire this past year for reacting to slow or even allowed the spread of violence due to its vast reach and manipulation by rogue agents. The company has denied being aware of such practices on its network, however with the revelation of Cambridge Analytica the world got to know how susceptible the platform was especially when it involves paid commission services.

Ever since then, there has been numerous changes to its policy, users now have more control to their page with clear direction and buttons. There are still skepticism over its transparency guidelines, after all holding a billion users personal data is a huge responsibility and handing it over to a 30 year old CEO, questions must be asked.

Violence in Myanmar is not caused by a social media company, but if your backyard is being used to cause injustice to the weak and unarmed, its wrong to turn a blind eye.

Quote from Facebook” We recognise that the sources of ethnic violence in Myanmar are incredibly complex and cannot be resolved by a social media company” 

Its this type of statements that makes us wonder if anything has changed and all that claims of more restriction and better monitoring were just lip service.