Not Only Palestine, Facebook Also Blocks Myanmar's Anti-coup Group

ILLUSTRATION / Twitter media_chin

JAKARTA - The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is heating up again. The atmosphere is even more complicated due to the findings of netizens on Facebook's actions that are known to censor the content of Israeli aggression in Palestine. In fact, the post with the hashtag Al Aqsa was blocked by the social media giant and attributed to it as a Terrorist Organization.

Suddenly this step caused protests from the international community. In fact, quoting BuzzFeed News, the error also sparked chaos within the body of Facebook. "This error and many others are completely unacceptable", wrote a Facebook employee, Tuesday, May 18.

Yes, this is not the first mistake. The reason is, Facebook is now being reported again for a similar error. But not for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which is still heating up and claiming lives. But for the anti-coup group Myanmar, an event that tarnished democracy in the Southeast Asian region.

Block Accounts Belonging to Myanmar Anti-Coup Groups

Launching Rest of World via The Verge, Facebook reportedly blocked several organizations in Myanmar that joined to fight the military coup. As is known, Myanmar's democratic government was coup d'etat by the military in February.

Even though the incident had just happened, the blocking has actually been going on since 2019. At that time, organizations such as the Arakan Army, and many of its allies, were categorized as terrorist organizations by the democratically elected government.

Since then, things have changed. After the military coup, the previous government took over the Tatmadaw - which the military saw as a fraud. So that it makes the political situation so complicated and complex.

It's just that, there is one thing that sheds light. The Arakan Army is no longer considered a terrorist organization - either by the current military administration or by a democratic government on the run. However, according to Rest of World findings, the Arakan Army and its affiliated organizations are still unable to create accounts on Facebook.

AA isn't the only organization that has found itself unable to communicate via Facebook. The reason is, there are also many armed ethnic organizations active in the country. Some have been disbanded because they were considered to be against the military government.

According to the Rest of World findings, the controversy over blocking ethnic armed organizations took place before the coup. Some members of the organization even considered that Facebook's move was to prevent the spread of information about human rights.

The difference is if previously the blocking was given to organizations that opposed democratic governance. Meanwhile, now, it is used to block accounts opposing the military government.

As a result, many members of the organization and journalists from Myanmar consider it a precaution so that the world community does not know what is really happening. In fact, the director of a human rights organization told the Rest of World that blocking is "like trying to cover people's eyes and ears".