"The Myanmar military has been banned from Facebook and Instagram with immediate effect, as the first pro-military rally took place in Yangon. In a blog post, Facebook said: “Events since the February 1 coup, including deadly violence, have precipitated a need for this ban,” adding: “We believe the risks of allowing the Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) on Facebook and Instagram are too great.” The army seized power this month after alleging fraud in a 8 November election won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), and detaining her and much of the party leadership. Facebook said it would also ban all “Tadmadaw-linked commercial entities” from advertising on its platforms. It said the decision to ban the Myanmar army was due to “exceptionally severe human rights abuses and the clear risk of future military-initiated violence in Myanmar”, as well as the army’s repeated history of violating Facebook’s rules, including since the coup.On the weekend Facebook said it had deleted a page belonging to the military’s propaganda agency, Tatmadaw True News Information Team Page, under its standards prohibiting the incitement of violence. The military government could not immediately be reached for comment. Facebook is widely used in Myanmar and has been one of the ways the junta has communicated with people, despite an official move to ban on the platform in the early days of the coup. In the commercial capital, Yangon, hundreds of pro-military demonstrators marched through downtown towards the central railway station, though the crowd was a fraction of the size of anti-coup protests. Democracy supporters met them with crossed wrists and banged pots and pans..."