Myanmar hardline monks vow to stay on Facebook despite ban

Myanmar'shardlinemonkswill dodgebans onFacebookand keep using it to "tell the truth", they said on Friday, after the social media giant barred several Buddhist nationalists for hate messages targeting Rohingya Muslims.

United Nations officials investigating a possible genocide inMyanmarhave saidFacebookhas been a source of propaganda against the minority in a country where it has become a near-ubiquitous communications tool as the economy opens up.

Myanmar's nationalistmonksand activists, who have emerged as a political force in recent years, have been sharing violent and angry rhetoric onFacebooktargeting the minority, seen by many in the Buddhist-majority country as illegal immigrants.

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"It is a violation of freedom of expression," Thuseitta, a member of the PatrioticMyanmarMonks' Union told Reuters hours afterFacebookidentified him as a "hate figure".

"We will keep usingFacebookwith different names and accounts to tell the truth to people."

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighbouringBangladesh, the United Nations and aid agencies have said, following an army crackdown after Rohingya insurgent attacks last August.

Washington has called the army response "ethnic cleansing" - a chargeMyanmardenies, saying its security forces have been waging a legitimate counter-insurgency operation against "Bengali terrorists".

Pinnyawenta, another monk from the union whose account was deactivated in May after repeatedly being asked byFacebookto remove some posts, said he had registered again under another name and would "continue to write about the truth" on the site.

In an email message,Facebooktold Reuters it was "investing more in the teams who are working onMyanmar" as it seeks to "understand and respond toMyanmar's unique technical challenges".

"There's always more we can do to get ahead of these repeat offenders, and we are committed to improving our detection tools to remove them fromFacebookas quickly as possible," the company said.

The California-based company will invest more in artificial intelligence to deal with languages inMyanmar, it said.

Facebookadded that it had designated as "hate figures and organizations" a radical Buddhist group, Ma Ba Tha, and several prominentmonksknown for vitriol towards Rohingya, blocking them from the platform.

The move had led to the removal of "a lot of harmful and violating content", it said.

Ei Myat Noe Khin, a manager of Yangon-based Phandeeyar, which helpedFacebooktranslate its Burmese-language community standards, urged the company to hire more people who are unbiased and understandMyanmarwell.

That would be the only way forFacebookto tackle the proliferating accounts behind the rumours spread to trigger violence, riots and conflict, she added.