5/23/22, 2:51 AM Internet Filtering in Burma in 2005: A Country Study | OpenNet Initiative situation in the state. It is not clear whether these sites are deliberately targeted by the Burmese state or whether they are the result of inadvertent overblocking. In sum, Burma effectively prevents access to the majority of sensitive political content that ONI tested. 5. CONCLUSION Burma's authoritarian state imposes harsh restrictions on how its citizens may use the Internet by combining draconian, far-reaching, and hard-to-interpret laws, high prices for access, and extensive technical measures such as filtering Web content. The state's goal of eavesdropping on e-mail communication by Burmese citizens helps explain the high level of blocking of free Web-based e-mail sites in ONI's testing, and its repression of political dissent is demonstrated by the filtering of pages on opposition groups. Burma also seeks to block pornographic content, and prevented access to roughly two-thirds of such sites tested. Burma demonstrates lesser concern with topics such as gambling and other circumvention methods, such as anonymizers; these topics are either of less concern to the state or it has not yet been able to implement effectively a means of blocking them. The state's commitment to controlling access to on-line materials is demonstrated by its purchase and apparent implementation of Fortinet's Fortiguard Web filtering software; the level of blocking is reportedly even more restrictive now than when ONI performed its testing. As with other countries that ONI has reported on that employ commercial filtering products, Burma's use of Fortinet's Fortiguard highlights the spreading market for Internet filtering software products and services among states that filter. In sum, Burma's authoritarian laws and political system are replicated in its system of Internet control, making it one of the world's most repressive regimes in terms of controlling and monitoring activity on the Internet. Appendix 1. Global List Testing Results https://opennet.net/studies/burma 8/15