Facebook down in Myanmar after riots in Mandalay
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Surfers in Myanmar grumbled at not having access to their Facebook pages last night, which was apparently linked to the Mandalay riot that left two killed.
The pages were off limit from 9pm to 3am.
“At first I thought the Internet was bad and then I couldn’t use Facebook completely. In Twitter, Myanmar from overseas tweeted that Facebook is banned in Myanmar,” said Htike Htike Aung from the Myanmar ICT Development Organisation (MIDO).
Rumours were doing the rounds that the local Internet Service Provider (ISP) had banned access to Facebook, as postings in the past few days were believed to have caused the sectarian violence in Mandalay. After curfew was imposed on Thursday, calm returned to the city.
“It’s easy for local ISP to block websites,” said Zaw Win Tun, an executive member of Myanmar Computer Professionals Association.
Ko Toe, a Facebook fan, said he could not access his account from 9pm. However, regained access when he used a proxy.
“The blocking is good, though, given domestic confusion. But it can affect many people,” said Ko Toe.
Myanmar has more than 1 million Facebook users and most of them use Facebook from their mobile phones.
