Nuked Myanmar has ordered mobile networks and Internet service providers to block Twitter and Facebook-owned Instagram in the country. The Southeast Asian country’s military seized power in a coup earlier this week, detaining its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi along with other government officials.
Facebook users had reportedly been using the social media platform to protest the coup. They shared photos of themselves giving the three-finger salute that’s become associated with resistance in the area.
The Norwegian telecom company provides mobile services in Myanmar. Telenor says it will block the social media platforms Twitter and Instagram.
Myanmar’s ministry of information instructs people not to spread rumors on social media.’we would like to notify the public to cooperate with the government,’ the statement said.
Facebook’s director of public policy, APAC emerging countries, said the company was’extremely concerned’ by the shutdown orders.
A Twitter spokesperson said the order’undermines the public conversation and the rights of people to make their voices heard’. The Twitter spokesperson told the verge that the order is’under threat around the world’.
