Facebook banned Myanmar's army chief and removed other pages tied to the country's military yesterday after a UN probe called for him to be prosecuted for genocide over a crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.

"We are banning 20 Burmese individuals and organisations from Facebook — including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the armed forces," the social media giant said in a statement on its site, adding that it wants to prevent them from using the service to "further inflame ethnic and religious tensions".