Facebook has banned all the remaining accounts linked to the Myanmar military, it said on Thursday. The ban has been implemented by Facebook as the junta, the Myanmar military, has been using deadly force against anti-coup demonstrators, the company said. Facebook has also banned all  “military-linked commercial entities” from advertising on its platform. 

The ban is applied to the Myanmar military accounts and entities controlled by the armed forces on both Facebook and Instagram with immediate effect. 

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Citing the reason for the ban, Facebook in a statement said, “Events since the February 1 coup, including deadly violence, have precipitated a need for this ban.”

“We believe the risks of allowing the Tatmadaw [Myanmar name for the country’s armed forces] on Facebook and Instagram are too great,” it added.

To disperse the protesters in Myanmar, the security forces have steadily increased the use of force. Following the coup on February 1, demonstrations, largely peaceful, have started in Myanmar, as protesters are demanding the junta relinquish power, and three anti-coup demonstrators have been killed. While a man was shot dead in Yangon neighbourhood when he was patrolling against night arrests. 

The military carried a coup, detaining Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others. The Myanmar military has claimed that last year’s election, in which Suu Kyi won in a landslide, was marred by voter fraud, using Facebook to boost its assertion. 

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and other top brass were booted from Facebook in 2018, a year after a military-led crackdown forced around 750,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh, reports AFP.

Thursday’s announcement comes after Facebook over the weekend banned a page run by the regime’s “True News” information service.