Facebook has removed Myanmar Army Chief and several other military officials from the social media website and an Instagram account to prevent the spread of “hate and misinformation” after reviewing the content. It also said it removed dozens of accounts for engaging in a campaign that “used seemingly independent news and opinion pages to covertly push the messages of the Myanmar military”.

This action from Facebook will lead to an essential blackout of the military’s main channel of public communication, with pages followed by millions of people in a country where the social media giant is virtually synonymous with the internet.
The move places further pressure on the generals, coming hours after United Nations investigators said the army carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with “genocidal intent”. Their report said the commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s armed forces and five generals should be prosecuted for orchestrating the gravest crimes under law.

Facebook announced that they are banning 20 Burmese individuals and organizations from Facebook — including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and the military’s Myawady television network. They have removed a total of 18 Facebook accounts, one Instagram account and 52 Facebook Pages, followed by almost 12 million people.
It is the first time Facebook has imposed such a ban on a country’s military or political leaders, the company later said it response to a query from Reuters. Facebook spokeswoman Clare Wareing said by email that the site took this step since international experts, including a UN-commissioned report, have found evidence that many of these officials committed serious human rights abuses in the country