13 June 2026 By Ko Myo
YANGON, Myanmar — Social media giant Meta has officially removed a prominent Facebook page operated by the military-owned telecommunications firm Mytel, which was being used to advertise the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup, following an urgent enforcement complaint by an international rights watchdog.
The deleted asset, known as the TV360 Facebook page, was taken down on Friday, 12 June, according to a press release issued by Justice For Myanmar (JFM). The structural intervention by Meta effectively short-circuits the junta’s domestic digital promotional campaign for the global tournament.
The digital deplatforming follows a storm of international controversy. Last week, world football governing body FIFA faced intense public condemnation after it quietly awarded the exclusive World Cup broadcasting monopoly inside Myanmar to Mytel.
Mytel is jointly owned and structurally dominated by the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), a heavily sanctioned, military-run conglomerate. Net profits from the telecom operator flow directly into the high command’s military budgets, which are currently funding widespread airstrikes and scorched-earth campaigns across the country.
Leveraging Meta’s long-standing post-coup policy, which strictly bans the Myanmar military and its commercial enterprises from utilizing Facebook and Instagram, JFM submitted a detailed compliance dossier to the tech giant early Friday morning. Meta responded within hours by permanently erasing the TV360 node.
“This structural surveillance by groups like Justice For Myanmar is absolutely crucial to preventing the sanctioned military council from accessing international platforms,” a Monywa-based political analyst told MPA. “The parallel National Unity Government (NUG) should closely coordinate with these covert investigative networks to map out fresh avenues for closing sanction loopholes and crippling the regime’s corporate avenues.”
Activists emphasize that while Meta’s swift response demonstrates functional corporate compliance, it highlights a stark, problematic divergence in how global entities approach human rights obligations within Myanmar.
JFM reiterated its sharp criticism of the Zurich-based football federation, describing FIFA’s complete lack of human rights due diligence as unacceptable. Activists maintain that by choosing to ink a multi-million-dollar deal with an illegitimate military operator, FIFA has actively assisted a brutal regime in executing a highly lucrative “sportswashing” campaign to polish its bloody public image.
Mytel remains subject to strict export limitations enforced by the US Department of Commerce due to its role in supplying dual-use surveillance infrastructure to military intelligence cells. Furthermore, its parent holding company, MEC, faces severe economic blockades across the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Canada, and Australia.
As the battle for legitimacy shifts from physical frontlines to cyberspace, Meta’s immediate blacklisting of the World Cup broadcasting page serves as a major symbolic defeat for the regime’s attempts to utilize popular international cultural events to generate revenue and project an illusion of domestic stability.
