[ad_1]
The country has been in crisis since the army toppled civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February, as the death toll from the violence surpassed 500 as the army tries to crush the anti-coup movement.
Expressions of anger and pain at the army’s crackdown turned into an online campaign, as nearly 170 family members of the military group were listed as “traitors” on a website.
The site and its Facebook page, which had 67,000 followers before its closure, publishes details of this personal data, such as its workplaces, universities and links to its social media pages.
The Facebook page wrote: “We are here to punish army families or people who support the army. Do not forgive and do not forget!”
Although Facebook has closed the page that it considers violates social norms, there are still other pages with fewer followers.
A Facebook spokeswoman said: “We will continue to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Burma.”
Social punishment forced some victims to shut down their internet businesses, while a Burmese student in Japan was forced to drop out, according to local media reports.
The scope of the campaign goes beyond those with ties to the military, as those not participating in the attacks are targeted, while journalists covering the military group’s press conferences have been threatened.
‘Corrupt system’
Burmese living abroad believe that their participation in the “social punishment” of people associated with the military group helps them alleviate their sense of powerlessness as they observe from afar what is happening in their country, according to Cho Yi Lat, born in Rangoon. currently resides in Singapore.
She told France Press that Burmese “in Singapore can’t do anything, so they feel great psychological pressure … and anger.”
Cho Yi Lat notes that she contacted the Singaporean employer of a Burmese woman, a friend of a soldier, who was posting messages online in support of the coup. “We have to destroy this corrupt system,” he said.
“I am only concerned about the poor in Myanmar who are being killed and arrested. Members of the military family are living luxurious lives abroad and do not feel any psychological pressure,” he added.
Among those attacked was the son of a high-ranking minister who works as a doctor, who later appeared on television to disown his father.
Brian Baing Miu Ou from Brisbane, Australia, faced attacks on social media for the role of his father, Point Sun, as Minister of Commerce.
“People who use social punishment against me think they are right,” he told a BBC program in Burmese. “I want to add that I participate in the social punishment of my father.”
He continued, “I texted him saying, Dad, you must quit immediately. If you don’t, you will lose me forever.”
Although he is the victim of social punishment, he sympathizes with this method as a means of increasing pressure on the system.
“I don’t blame people for resorting to social punishment because people are being brutally murdered in the streets,” he said. “It is the only weapon that civilians have.”
Attacks on people associated with the military group are also widespread on Twitter.
“We will socially punish the whole family. We will punish them to the point of making them commit suicide,” wrote a Twitter user, attaching the publication to photographs of the Army Lieutenant General and his daughter.
Twitter stated that it is acting against abusive tweets, but experts indicate that the number of supervisors familiar with the Burmese language in social media companies is not enough to control the situation.
“With us or against us”
In addition, a group of deputies from the Suu Kyi party, the National League for Democracy, who were fired and are secretly working against the military group, are promoting the “with us or against us” principle.
The committee representing the dismissed deputies of the Suu Kyi party warned in a statement that “serious measures” will be taken against people who do not join the protest movement.
This method is not limited to Myanmar alone, as both parties followed the personal information disclosure method in the Hong Kong protests in 2019.
Hong Kong police have become a major target for protesters in light of the clashes, especially after the security element stopped wearing badges revealing their identities, while the ruling party expelled opponents from Beijing.
Online hate expert Ginger Gorman says “digital” retaliation could have dangerous consequences on the ground.
“This type of harsh electronic harassment and cyberbullying against an individual is linked to enormous harm, including … incitement to suicide, murder, and in fact tracking (the victim) and attacking him,” he told France Press. .
There have been isolated reports of incidents on the ground as a result of electronic social punishment campaigns, including anti-coup protesters shaving the heads and eyebrows of people in Myanmar, according to numerous posts on social media.
[ad_2]
