Myanmar Media Historically and the Challenges of Transition 27 In the late 1990s and early 2000s, local punk and hip-hop bands emerged on to the Burmese music scene. Punk rock lyrics were overtly anti-establishment, performed by bands like No U-Turn and Side Effect. The first ever hip-hop group, ACID, was formed in 2000 by Zayar Thaw (who would later be elected as an NLD legislator) and three other musicians — Annaga, Hein Zaw and Yan Yan Chan. The band had to submit their lyrics, demo tapes, finished recordings and cover art for the approval of the censors (Denby 2012), and they got into trouble for lyrics that were pro-democracy and pro-social justice.12 The punk bands later used their performances to counter hate speech (Hindstrom 2015), while members of Generation Wave used hip-hop and other art forms to engage young people in politics during the transition (Freemuse 2011). In this volume, Heather MacLachlan provides an overview of changes in the music industry during the early transition period. The internet’s development in Burma was slow and from the start highly controlled. In 1996 the military regime launched its own website, Myanmar.com, as well as a Computer Science and Development Law which wielded an automatic seven to fifteen years’ jail term for anyone who set up or had links to a computer network without the prior approval of the state Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) service.13 The MPT began providing an email service in 1997 and launched the first dial-up internet service in 1999, but the use of these services was limited by their exorbitant cost and access remained out of reach for most Burmese (Chon 2001; Zarny Win 2001). In early 2000 the regime listed a series of regulations for internet users, including prohibiting any writings “detrimental to the interests of the Union of Myanmar” or related to politics, making account holders responsible for all activity on their accounts, prohibiting hacking or other misuse, and requiring permission to publish web pages (“Regulations for Internet Users” 2000). The government was clearly concerned about the impact of new information technologies. Despite allowing citizens access to email accounts, all messages had to pass through a central server controlled by the military, where they could be held up for hours waiting for the censors to read them (Neumann 2002; Zarny Win 2001). Early internet cafes in Rangoon only allowed access to members, and services were limited to an “Intranet” of government-approved sites. Membership 01 ch1-MyanmarMediaIT-5P.indd 27 8/4/19 10:29 am