Myanmar’s Military Struggles to Control the Virtual Battlefield Crisis Group Asia Report N°314, 18 May 2021 Page 10 business, receive remittances, contact friends and relatives abroad, and provide aid to displaced people.43 Arguably, it has put residents’ lives at risk, by depriving them of information about the fighting and the COVID-19 pandemic. As one resident of rural Kyauktaw township observed: Before the shutdown, news [about the fighting] would pop up in a minute on the internet [Facebook]. That meant we had time to prepare to run or to hide or to store more essential items. … The internet ban has also affected our livelihoods. Many people were earning income from running internet shopping businesses [on Facebook] but now those are all gone.44 For the Tatmadaw, the trade-off for the drastic measures it applied to control the internet in Rakhine was also steep: the restrictions fuelled resentment of the government and armed forces, increased popular support for the Arakan Army among ethnic Rakhine, and further damaged the country’s international image in the wake of the Rohingya crisis. The mobile internet blackout, in particular, has created so much anger that many sources argue it has been largely counterproductive. “It’s like the Arakan Army doesn’t need to send out propaganda anymore about how bad the government and military are – the internet ban is doing its job ,” said a Rakhine activist, in comments echoed by other Rakhine-based sources.45 After the ban, residents relied more on word of mouth for information, enabling the Arakan Army to control the narrative through its network of members and supporters.46 Rakhine people living in areas where internet was not restricted became more engaged with the conflict, sharing information from Facebook with friends and relatives in northern Rakhine.47 43 Crisis Group Report, An Avoidable War: Politics and Armed Conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, op. cit. 44 Crisis Group interview, Kyauktaw resident, November 2020. 45 Crisis Group interviews, Rakhine activist, Rakhine politician close to Arakan Army and senior official from a Rakhine political party, October 2020. 46 Crisis Group interviews, Rakhine politician close to Arakan Army and Kyauktaw resident, November 2020. 47 Crisis Group interviews, Rakhine activist and Rakhine politician close to Arakan Army, October 2020.