Access to Facebook blocked as opposition to junta grows

YANGON • Myanmar's junta blocked Facebook in the name of ensuring stability yesterday, and activists said at least three people were arrested at a street protest against the coup that ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Opposition to the junta has emerged very strongly on Facebook, which is the country's main Internet platform and underpins communications for business and government. Facebook's WhatsApp messaging was also blocked.

Facebook was still available sporadically, and demonstrators in the second city of Mandalay used it to live-stream the first such street protest since the coup in a country with a bloody history of crackdowns on demonstrations.

"People's protest against military coup," read one of the banners. The group of around 20 people chanted: "Our arrested leaders, release now, release now."

The social network has also been used to share images of a campaign of disobedience by staff at government hospitals across the country, with doctors stopping work or wearing ribbons in the red colour of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.

Pictures shared on Wednesday showed workers at the agriculture ministry joining the campaign.

For two nights, people in Yangon and other cities have banged on pots and pans and honked car horns in protest.

The Ministry of Communications and Information said Facebook, used by half of Myanmar's more than 53 million people, would be blocked until Sunday because users were "spreading fake news and misinformation, and causing misunderstanding".

Norway's Telenor Asa, Myanmar's leading mobile network operator, said it had no choice but to comply with the directive to block Facebook.

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone urged the authorities to restore connectivity "so that people in Myanmar can communicate with their families and friends, and access important information".

Some people used VPNs to evade the blockage.

Twitter, which was not blocked, saw an increase in new users.

REUTERS