'Overreacting to failure': Facebook's new Myanmar strategy baffles local activists

As Facebook tries to address its role in spreading hate speech, human rights experts criticize fresh ban of ethnic armed groups

Facebook banned four ethnic armed Myanmar-based groups from its site this week, in its latest effort to reckon with its role in the violence in that nation. But the tech giant's decision is drawing criticism from local civil society and human rights groups who warn that the move appears ill-considered and inconsistent with international law.

On Tuesday, Facebook announced in a blogpost that it had designated four separatist groups - the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Kachin Independence Army and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army - as "dangerous organizations".