Facebook said on Monday it was removing certain Myanmar military officials from the social media website as well as an Instagram account, after reviewing the content, in its bid to "prevent the spread of hate and misinformation".

"Specifically, we are banning 20 Burmese individuals and organisations from Facebook — including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and the military's Myawady television network.

"We're removing a total of 18 Facebook accounts, one Instagram account and 52 Facebook Pages, followed by almost 12 million people," Facebook said in a blog post.

The world's largest social media networking site said it had also removed 46 pages and 12 accounts for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behaviour on Facebook…to covertly push the messages of the Myanmar military”

- Reuters