It seemed too good to be true. And it seems, sadly, that it was.
The world had a big fat chuckle yesterday after it appeared a Facebook page belonging to Myanmar’s ultranationalist group Ma Ba Tha had confused actor Morgan Freeman for Kofi Annan in a post intended to insult the former UN boss.
Annan has been appointed head of a committee on Rakhine state, to discuss the issue of persecuted Rohingya Muslims, and nationalists are not happy about it.
A photo of Freeman plastered with the words “we no need Coffee Annan, he go away” went viral yesterday after it was posted by a page claiming to be owned by the Mandalay chapter of Ma Ba Tha.
Even the wire service Associated Press did a story headlined ‘Myanmar group targets Kofi Annan; uses Morgan Freeman photo’.
Oops. This is what the cover page of that ‘Ma Ba Tha’ Facebook page was changed to this afternoon:
Either the page was hacked or, um, Ma Ba Tha pranked themselves. LOL?
Facebook is a hotbed of political trolling in Myanmar, especially through memes. Fake pages profilerate and accounts are hacked. Earlier this year, a rumor was circulated on social media that nationalists throught ‘RIP’ stood for ‘Real Immortal Person’ and the memes took off like wildfire.
This one had us all fooled good. Congrats?
