June 13, 2026 | Burma Independent Voice (BIV)
MENLO PARK/YANGON — Meta, the parent company of Facebook, removed the “TV360” Facebook page on Friday, a platform operated by the military-controlled telecommunications operator Mytel, which was being actively utilized to market broadcasting rights for the upcoming FIFA World Cup. Mytel, which is co-owned and structurally dominated by the sanctioned military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), had previously secured exclusive domestic broadcasting rights for the World Cup directly from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). The civil society activist group Justice For Myanmar (JFM) vehemently condemned FIFA’s engagement with the military entity, characterizing the deal as a catastrophic failure of human rights due diligence and a blatant disregard for international human rights standards.
The removal of the TV360 page was executed rapidly following an official complaint lodged by JFM early Friday morning, which cited Meta’s standing corporate policy that strictly prohibits the Myanmar military and its associated business enterprises from utilizing any of its commercial platforms. According to financial investigations conducted by JFM, the Myanmar military is projected to reap up to 270 million U.S. dollars in dividends during Mytel’s fifth to ninth years of operation, with an additional 450 million U.S. dollars anticipated in the subsequent five-year period. These projections underscore Mytel’s position as a vital, high-yield revenue stream financing the military apparatus and its top-tier generals.
Consequent to its role in generating state revenue and facilitating military surveillance infrastructure, Mytel has been placed under strict export controls by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Furthermore, its parent conglomerate, MEC, faces direct financial sanctions imposed by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, and Australia. FIFA has a historical precedent of engaging with controversial figures in Myanmar; in 2019, the football governing body appointed military crony Zaw Zaw, the owner of Max Myanmar, to chair its social responsibility committee, despite the UN Fact-Finding Mission highlighting his financial complicity in the military’s genocidal campaigns against the Rohingya. In light of this latest controversy, human rights advocates are demanding that FIFA immediately sever all corporate ties with the Myanmar military junta and its crony networks, urging the federation to structurally align its operations with its own stated human rights statutes and international legal obligations.
