The Myanmar military blocked Facebook for the sake of 'stability' after activists began mobilizing on the platform
- Myanmar's military blocked Facebook on Thursday, claiming it was to stop misinformation.
- The military seized power in a coup on Monday and detained hundreds of politicians.
- Facebook is popular in Myanmar and activists had been using it to mobilize against the junta.
The military junta that seized control of Myanmar in a coup has said it is blocking Facebook to ensure "stability," after activists began using it to mobilize.
Myanmar's military, known as the Tatmadaw, declared a yearlong state of emergency on Monday and detained hundreds of lawmakers, including the de facto ruler Aung San Suu Kyi.
The coup has been condemned internationally, with world leaders calling on military leader Min Aung Hlaing to release the captives. The Myanmar police charged Suu Kyi with a string of minor infractions on Wednesday, and if convicted, she could be imprisoned for up to three years.
Access to the internet was disrupted from 3 a.m. on Monday, according to internet monitor NetBlocks and, on Thursday, the Myanmar ministry of communications and information said that Facebook would be blocked until February 7, Reuters and The Guardian reported.
MPT, the state-owned telecom company, blocked Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp on Thursday, NetBlocks told Reuters.
Insider has contacted Facebook for comment.
Half of Myanmar's population of 53 million people use Facebook, Reuters reported.
In justifying the block, the ministry said: "The people who are troubling the country's stability ... are spreading fake news and misinformation and causing misunderstanding among people by using Facebook," according to Reuters.
Facebook was a crucial platform for those opposing the coup in Myanmar.
It was used to coordinate Tuesday's mass walk-out of medical professionals across 70 hospitals, and hosted a civil disobedience Facebook group that had 198,000 followers by Thursday afternoon.
The first major protest against the coup took place in Mandalay, northern Myanmar, but it was quickly dispersed by law enforcement, The Guardian reported.
Citizens also appear to be using the offline messaging app Bridgefy to organize.
Facebook has a checkered past in Myanmar.
In November 2018, Facebook said it had not done enough to censor hate speech posted on the platform against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.
Since August 2017, as many as 750,000 Rohingya have been driven into Bangladesh amid a crackdown overseen by Suu Kyi. Hundreds of Rohingya villages have reportedly been burnt across Rakhine state, with some reportedly raped and killed.
"I think it is clear that people were trying to use our tools in order to incite real harm," CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Vox in 2018.
In Myanmar, "everything is done through Facebook," Yanghee Lee, the UN investigator for Myanmar, said in March 2018.
"I'm afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended," she added.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday met to issue a joint declaration condemning the coup in Myanmar, but China and Russia blocked the statement, with their UN ambassadors saying they needed approval from Beijing and Moscow.