Facebook is cracking down on bogus accounts in Myanmar.
Graphic by Pixabay/Illustration by The Techy Trends
Facebook’s fight against sham accounts in Myanmar isn’t over.
The social network said it pulled down more than 200 accounts, groups and pages from Myanmar for misleading users about their identity and purpose. Facebook has been subject to criticism that it didn’t do enough to combat hate speech that fueled a genocide in Myanmar against the the Rohingya, a mainly Muslim group.
It’s the fourth network of fake accounts in Myanmar that Facebook identified this year. The social media giant said it linked some of these accounts to people associated with the Myanmar military. Some of the Facebook pages that the social network pulled down included the Myanmar Media Watch, Myanmar Muslim News and the Ethnic Regional News. The accounts posted about national and local topics, from crime and ethnic relations to entertainment and the military.
“We are making progress rooting out this abuse, but as we’ve said before, it’s an ongoing challenge,” said Facebook Head of Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel Gleicher in a Wednesday blog post.
Overall, the company removed 89 Facebook accounts, 107 Facebook Pages, 15 Facebook Groups and five Instagram accounts from Myanmar.
The Myanmar Embassy in Washington DC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
