Facebook bans four 'dangerous' groups in Myanmar

Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Facebook banned four "dangerous organizations" in Myanmar from its platform Tuesday.

The move builds on the social media company's effort to remove incendiary content from its platform after a report from the United Nations last year showed Myanma military officials used Facebook to stoke hatred and fear against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority amid accelerating ethnic violence.

"Over the past year, we have repeatedly taken action against violent actors and bad content on Facebook in Myanmar," Facebook wrote in a statement on its website. "The ethnic violence happening in Myanmar is horrific and we don't want our services to be used to spread hate, incite violence or fuel tension on the ground."

On Tuesday, Facebook said it designated four groups as dangerous organizations, banning them from its platform. They include the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Kachin Independence Army and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army.

"There is clear evidence that these organizations have been responsible for attacks against civilians and have engaged in violence in Myanmar, and we want to prevent them from using our services to further inflame tensions on the ground," Facebook said.

Since last summer, Facebook has taken down hundreds of pages, groups and accounts, including some on sister platform Instagram, and banned other individuals that were affiliated with the Myanma military or "coordinated inauthentic behavior."

Facebook's actions follow the United Nations calling on Myanmar military leaders last summer to face genocide charges for violence against its Rohingya Muslim minority. The U.N. report found that violence escalated in August 2017 when a small number of Rohingya insurgents attacked police outposts, some with improvised explosive devices, killing 12 security officers.

"The security forces' response, starting within hours, was immediate, brutal and grossly disproportionate," the report said, citing operations that "terrorized the entire Rohingya population."

"As a result, nearly 725,000 Rohingya had fled to Bangladesh by mid-August 2018," the report said.

Facebook commissioned an independent human rights impact assessment by the non-profit Business for Social Responsibility published in November that found it wasn't doing enough to prevent its platform from being used to stoke violence.