Facebook announced, on Wednesday, that the Myanmar army was banned from using its social networking platforms (Facebook and Instagram) with immediate effect following the coup and the arrest of the country's elected leaders, while human rights organizations called on the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar.
"Events since the February 1 coup, including the deadly violence, have accelerated the need for this ban. We believe that the risks of allowing the Tatmadaw (armed forces of Myanmar) to use Facebook and Instagram are very great," the company said in a statement.
The social media giant said the Myanmar military, its media and government entities and associated ads, will be banned from the two platforms.
Facebook said that the army’s ban was the result of its history of "exceptionally serious human rights violations and clear risks of future military violence" in the country, and its "repeated violations" of community standards and platforms, among other reasons.
At the beginning of this month, the army carried out a "white" coup without bloodshed, arrested the country's president, state advisor Aung San Suu Kyi, and a number of senior officials, and declared a state of emergency for a year, putting an end to a 10-year period in which civilian rule prevailed.
He claimed that he wanted to maintain stability, and spoke of fraud in the results of the parliamentary elections, and promised that he would hand over power after conducting "free and fair" elections, but he did not specify any date for them.
Opponents of the military coup in a protest movement (Anatolia)
Human rights demands
This comes while 137 non-governmental human rights organizations from 31 countries around the world have called on the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar and to deter military leaders there from committing further violations, in response to the military coup.
This came in an open letter sent by international organizations on Wednesday to the Security Council.
The message of the human rights organizations stressed that members of the Security Council should draft a resolution prohibiting the direct and indirect supply, sale or transfer of all weapons, ammunition and other related equipment to the military leaders in Myanmar.
She stressed that the proposed decision should be accompanied by tight monitoring and strong enforcement, including heavy scrutiny of sales to third parties who may resell military equipment to Myanmar.
The army leaders carried out a military coup at the beginning of this month (Anatolia)
Diplomatic efforts
In the context of diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, the foreign minister, appointed by the military in Myanmar, went to Thailand on Wednesday to hold talks with two foreign ministers from neighboring countries that are intensifying their efforts to solve the crisis, despite the fact that the camp demanding democracy suspects those efforts.
Minister Wona Maung Lewin made the first foreign trip for a member of the new army government, as opponents of the coup took to the streets again in Myanmar.
These talks come at a time when, yesterday, Wednesday, the death toll from the suppression of demonstrations against the coup rose to 5, after a local ambulance organization announced the death of a detained protester.