Myanmar military leaders block Twitter and Instagram

Military authorities responsible for Myanmar broadened a ban about social media following this week's coup and shut Twitter and Instagram, as residents on the biggest city again banged pots and plastic bottles showing their opposition to the army takeover.

In addition to Facebook and related apps, the military federal government on Friday ordered communications operators and internet companies to cut usage of Twitter and Instagram. The statement said that some people are trying to use both systems to spread fake reports.

Netblocks, which tracks public media disruptions and shutdowns, confirmed the increased loss of Twitter provider starting in 10 pm. Instagram had been subject to restrictions.

In a statement, Twitter stated it is “deeply concerned” about the order to block internet companies in Myanmar and vowed to “advocate to get rid of destructive government-led shutdowns”.

“It undermines the general public discussion and the rights of men and women to create their voices heard,” the spokesperson said.

Telenor, a Norway-based telecommunications firm operating found in Myanmar through a subsidiary, said it again had complied with the buy but also challenged “the need and proportionality of the directive.”

State media are actually heavily censored and Facebook specifically has become the key way to obtain news and information found in the country. Additionally it is employed to organise protests.

For the fourth night on Friday, the cacophony of noise from windows and balconies reverberated through the commercial capital of Yangon, as level of resistance to the coup and arrests of activists and politicians gathered steam.

Earlier on Friday, nearly 300 customers of Aung San Suu Kyi's National Group for Democracy get together declared themselves simply because the only real legitimate representatives of the persons and asked for international reputation as the country’s authorities.

They were supposed to take their seats Monday in a new session of Parliament following November elections when the military announced it had been taking power for a year.

The armed service accused Suu Kyi and her party of failing woefully to act on its complaints that the election was fraudulent, though the election commission said it had no found no evidence to support the claims.

A supporter displays a three-finger salute of protest while 4 arrested activists get a court appearance in Mandalay, Myanmar, Friday, Feb 5, 2021. A huge selection of students and teachers have taken to Myanmar's streets to demand the military hands power back again to elected politicians, as resistance to a coup swelled with demonstrations in a number of places. (Photo: AP)

In New York, Secretary-Standard Antonio Guterres pledged on Friday that the US will do everything it could to unite the worldwide community and create conditions for the military coup in Myanmar to be reversed.

He told a media conference it really is “essential” to handle the Security Council’s demands a go back to democracy, respect for the results of the November elections, and release of all persons detained by the military, “which means the reversal of the coup that took place”.

Guterres said Christine Schraner Burgener, the UN particular envoy for Myanmar, had a first connection with the military since the coup and expressed the UN’s strong opposition to the takeover.

According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, this lady reiterated to Deputy Commander-in-Chief Vice Gen Soe Earn “the secretary-general’s good condemnation of the military’s actions that disrupted the democratic reforms which were acquiring place in the country”.

Furthermore to 134 officials and lawmakers who were detained in the coup, another 18 activists are also being held, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Myanmar.

On Thursday, authorities arrested several among about 20 protesters who had gathered outside the University of Medicine in Mandalay to oppose the coup. On Friday, Suu Kyi’s senior aide, Gain Htein, was found in Mayangone township.

He told BBC in a telephone call early on Friday that he had been arrested for sedition, which carries a maximum penalty of lifestyle imprisonment.

Aung San Suu Kyi and President Get Myint are also under house arrest and also have been charged with minor offences, seen by various as merely providing a legal veneer for their detention. She was defined by her party to be in good health.

In the most significant rallies because the takeover, a huge selection of students and teachers took to the streets on Friday to demand the military hand power back again to elected politicians. Demonstrations pass on to several places, possibly in the tightly handled capital of Naypyidaw.

“We will never be as well as them,” lecturer Nwe Thazin explained of the military at a protest at the Yangon University of Education. “We wish that kind of federal government to collapse immediately.”

Myanmar was under military guideline for five decades after a 1962 coup, and Suu Kyi’s five years due to leader since 2015 had been its most democratic period in spite of continued make use of repressive colonial-period laws and persecution of minority Rohingya Muslims.