Reuters: Facebook shuts dozens of Myanmar social media accounts over ‘inauthentic behavior’ . “Facebook Inc said on Thursday it had shut 216 social media pages, groups and accounts in Myanmar, some tied to the army, to stymie efforts to ‘manipulate or corrupt public debate’.”
Myanmar
The New York Times: The Government Cut Their Internet. Will Abuses Now Remain Hidden?
The New York Times: The Government Cut Their Internet. Will Abuses Now Remain Hidden?. “Rakhine State, a ribbon of marsh and mountain on the western coast of Myanmar, is isolated in the best of times, racked by guerrilla warfare and ethnic cleansing that takes place far from international scrutiny. Now, an internet blackout has all but severed parts of the state from the outside world, in a dramatic display of how easily a government can silence a population in the digital age.”
TechCrunch: Facebook adds new limits to address the spread of hate speech in Sri Lanka and Myanmar
TechCrunch: Facebook adds new limits to address the spread of hate speech in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. “As Facebook grapples with the spread of hate speech on its platform, it is introducing changes that limit the spread of messages in two countries where it has come under fire in recent years: Sri Lanka and Myanmar. In a blog post on Thursday evening, Facebook said that it was ‘adding friction’ to message forwarding for Messenger users in Sri Lanka so that people could only share a particular message a certain number of times. The limit is currently set to five people.”
Myanmar Times: Open History project
Myanmar Times: Open History project. “In Myanmar, one man is on the path to build a library of many millions of words by collecting as much archival, antiqued and stored treasure as possible to save it for posterity. The collection also includes videos and artworks. He is Ko Aung Soe Min of Pansodan gallery. With the vast materials already collected, Ko Aung Soe Min has put on shows in Yangon and Magway, among other places, for the benefit of the public. He named this show, the ‘Open History Project’.”
The Irrawaddy: Archivist Salvages Myanmar’s Neglected Photographic History
The Irrawaddy: Archivist Salvages Myanmar’s Neglected Photographic History. “Austrian photographer and archivist Lukas Birk collects vintage images by local photographers and exhibits them with the aim of reinterpreting Myanmar’s history and reviving the stories told by photographers of bygone eras. His major project, the Myanmar Photo Archive, is an ongoing labor of love comprising more than 20,000 images so far. Lukas is himself a photographer but has devoted the past decade to working on historical research in various countries. He started his Myanmar project in 2015 after learning of the country’s rich photographic history.” An online archive is in the works.
TechCrunch: Facebook bans four armed groups in Myanmar
TechCrunch: Facebook bans four armed groups in Myanmar. “Facebook is taking action in Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country where the social network has been used to incite racial tension and violence, after it banned four armed groups from its service. The U.S. company said in a blog post that it has booted the groups — the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Kachin Independence Army (KIO) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) — and that ‘all related praise, support and representation’ will be removed.”
TechCrunch: Jack Dorsey and Twitter ignored opportunity to meet with civic group on Myanmar issues
TechCrunch: Jack Dorsey and Twitter ignored opportunity to meet with civic group on Myanmar issues. “Responding to criticism from his recent trip to Myanmar, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he’s keen to learn about the country’s racial tension and human rights atrocities, but it has emerged that both he and Twitter’s public policy team ignored an opportunity to connect with a key civic group in the country.”
