Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, announced on Wednesday that it would remove any Myanmar military-controlled enterprises from its platforms, extending its previous restrictions on the country's security forces.
Wednesday's statement came a day after a group representing Rohingya Muslim refugees in the United States and Britain launched a lawsuit against Meta seeking $150 billion, alleging that it allowed hate speech to proliferate on its Myanmar platform.
In 2017, a military campaign in Myanmar's Buddhist-majority country claimed the lives of an estimated 10,000 Rohingya Muslims.
According to Meta, it had taken the necessary steps to "protect people's safety."
However, the tech giant is accused of facilitating "decades-long dissemination of hateful disinformation."
Meta had already stated in February that it will cease advertising on its platforms for all companies associated with the military, known as the Tatmadaw.
Myanmar's military deposed democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in February, sparking nationwide demonstrations and denouncement from the international community.
"This action is based on considerable documentation by the international community and civil society showing these corporations' direct involvement in funding the Tatmadaw," Rafael Frankel, Meta's Pacific head of public policy for emerging countries, said.
Frankel stated that Meta identified the corporations based on a 2019 report by the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, research conducted by activist groups Justice for Myanmar and Burma Campaign UK, as well as conversations with civil society.
Meta has come under increasing pressure from civil society groups since the military clamped down on the Rohingya in 2017, killing thousands and displacing over 740,000 people to Bangladesh.
Following the military's overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's administration, Facebook removed all Tatmadaw content from its platform and prohibited advertising for military-affiliated businesses.
The junta has been charged with murder, rape, and other offenses since the coup.
Facebook is the leading internet channel in Myanmar, and it is widely utilized by both demonstrators against military rule and troops.
According to United Nations human rights investigators, Facebook allowed hardline Buddhist nationalists and military officers to fan a campaign of violence against the Rohingya, 700,000 of whom fled a 2017 army crackdown.
Myanmar has more than 20 million Facebook users. For many people, social media is their primary or sole source of news and information.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, lawyers filed a court lawsuit against Facebook, accusing it of "willingly trading the lives of the Rohingya people for improved market penetration in a small Southeast Asian country."
