Civil society activists have raised concerns that the
opaque mass directives being issued to service
providers by the military since the coup include orders
for widespread interception (see A4, B1, and B3).325 The
draft cybercrimes law would also require service
providers to store data on servers designated by and
fully accessible to the military (see C5). There is little
room for providers to push back against the military’s
directives, though in at least one instance they did so
effectively. On March 30, one regional military official
ordered telecommunications companies to disclose lists
of subscribers in order to identify who still had internet
access;326 the companies reportedly appealed
successfully to the military on the grounds that the
move would violate their license requirements.
The largest state-owned telecommunications provider,
MPT, has not publicized the number of requests for
data it receives from authorities. Telenor announced
that in 2019 it received 188 requests for
communications data, about triple the number received
in 2018, and complied with 88.327 Mytel stated that it
had received over 100 requests from the police for user
data during 2019.328 Both claimed that the majority of
requests were related to human trafficking, missing
people, and drugs.329 The content of these requests is
unclear. One major provider stated in 2018 that it
initially required three documents before disclosing
information, including a letter from a senior police
officer and a letter from the PTD, but it has in practice
dropped the requirement for a judicial warrant.330
C7: လ=ပ&ဂqိ$လ်များ၏ အွန်လိ&ငး် လ1ပ်ေဆာင်မ1များကိ& လက်စားေချရန်အတွက် အစိ&းရအာဏာပိ&ငမ
် ျားမ. သိမဟ&
& ့ တ် အြခား
၀ မ.တ်
သက်ဆင
ိ& သ
် မ
= ျားမ. ဥပေဒြပင်ပ oခိမ်းေြခာက်ြခင်း သိမဟ&
& ့ တ် ကိ&ယ်ထိလက်ေရာက် အ8ကမ်းဖက်ြခင်းများ ြပလ&ပ်ပါသလား။ (၀-၅
မ.တ)်
C7: Are individuals subject to extralegal intimidation or physical violence by state authorities or any other actor in
retribution for their online activities? (0–5 points)
Score Change: The score declined from 2 to 0 due to
reports of widespread physical violence in reprisal for
online activity, including torture in detention.
Since the coup, the military has forcibly disappeared
and publicly beaten influential social media figures,
and physical and mental torture of those in detention
has become widespread.331 The junta has threatened
deadly repercussions for those who support or
participate in the anticoup protests, the civil
disobedience movement, or a committee representing
political forces opposed to the coup.332 The military has
also actively searched for people who use the internet
to support these endeavors.333
At least 23 journalists, many of whom produced online
content, have been shot or severely beaten by the
military.334 For example, CPJ reported that Nathan
Maung and Han Thar Nyein, the cofounders of the
online news website Kamayut Media, were beaten in
detention after being arrested in March 2021. In an
interview with CPJ, Maung alleged that Han Thar
Nyein was burned with lit cigarettes, made to kneel on
ice, and subjected to an attempted sexual assault by
soldiers.335 The soldiers also demanded that he hand
0
over his iPhone password. Han Thar Nyein remained
in detention as of June 2021 (see C3).336
The military leadership has also leveled threats against
soldiers over online activity, for instance if they use
Facebook via a VPN.337 Officials at military checkpoints
set up between major cities reportedly confiscate
mobile phones, which are then examined to assess the
owner’s Facebook activity.338 Civil society groups have
established a mechanism for closing down the social
media accounts of detained individuals to prevent
them from self-incriminating or incriminating
others.339 Renowned digital rights activists have also
been in hiding since the coup; their organizations have
effectively been shut down, and they believe they are at
risk of death if found or detained by authorities.340
Online journalists, human rights defenders, and
political activists reported intimidation and threats of
violence prior to the coup, although to a significantly
lesser degree. In one opinion survey published in May
2020, most journalists reported that they believed
violence against members of the media had increased
compared with the previous year.341
Free Expression Myanmar (FEM) and Freedom House - Freedom of the Net: Myanmar - အင်တာနက်ေပ*တွင် လွတ်လပ်မ/ - ြမန်မာ2ိ4င်ငံ - Page 25