A Rohingya militant group has been banned from Facebook, designating it a ‘dangerous organization’ since information on the deepening crisis is muddied by claims, counter-claims and hate speech on social media
The social network is a key tool in the information war taking place over violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which has driven more than 420,000 Rohingya Muslims from the country and sparked UN accusations of military-led “ethnic cleansing”.
Rohingya activists have used the platform to post alleged scenes of brutality from the conflict zone, where humanitarian and media access is severely restricted, while the army and government deliver near-daily updates on the crisis.
A Facebook spokesperson told late on Wednesday that it was not requested by the government to bar the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which remains active on Twitter. The spokesperson added that the move was in line with its policy of prohibiting violent groups from its site.
The latest violence in Rahkine erupted after a series of deadly ARSA attacks on military posts in August.
The army has been blamed for launching a crackdown in response that has forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, along with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Hindus, into neighbouring Bangladesh.
Rohingya are widely reviled in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are considered illegal ‘Bengali’ immigrants brought in from modern-day Bangladesh during British colonial rule.
There were an estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Rakhine state before the current crisis, though nearly half have fled into Bangladesh where they are cramped into ill-equipped camps.
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