11/22/22, 4:44 PM ‘Watermelon suppression’: doxing campaign targets pro-democracy soldiers and police | Frontier Myanmar A coordinated campaign There is mounting evidence that the Telegram accounts are part of a coordinated campaign and are directly linked to the military and its institutions. On the morning of February 7, the now-banned Han Nyein Oo account posted about police Major Tin Min Tun, who had defected in February of last year, complaining that the police officer remained at liberty. According to local media, police in riot gear stormed Tin Min Tun’s home in Yangon’s North Okkalapa Township later that same day and seized his property (he was not home at the time of the raid). Some Telegram channels also show which admin made a specific post, giving insight into the connections between different channels. For example, one post by Myanmar Hard Talk was written by an admin named Oakker Aung. The same username is also listed as an admin for one of Han Nyein Oo’s pages. Myanmar Hard Talk is a political commentary operation that revolves around an inflammatory talk show and social media posts, often hosting extremist and controversial figures. Hardline nationalist Maung Myint, a candidate for the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), was a regular guest in the lead-up to the 2020 election. Myanmar Hard Talk was banned from Facebook following a Frontier exposé that showed the page was spreading disinformation and anti-Muslim hate speech. The network has since resurfaced on Telegram, where it has accumulated nearly 19,000 followers – in August of last year, it had just 6,000 subscribers. While its growth has been substantial, it still doesn’t compare to Facebook, where it accumulated 240,000 followers in around 11 months before being shut down. Thazin Oo was another account that participated in the campaigns to arrest business owners and soldiers, which was also recently deleted, but a new channel has already accumulated more than 11,000 subscribers. While most pro-military channels hide their admins, Thazin Oo’s channel did not. A number of her posts were written by admins HNO – a name regularly used by Han Nyein Oo, including for one of his accounts – and Kyaw Swar, another prominent pro-military Telegram user with around 53,000 subscribers on the messaging app. In a post on March 9, Kyaw Swar targeted a prominent activist who recently criticised Telegram, posting her supposed address in Yangon. That account remains accessible. Thazin Oo has direct connections to the junta and the proxy USDP. She frequently campaigned for the USDP before the 2020 election, even appearing in a video posted by one of the party’s verified Facebook pages days before the election. The same page would go on to spread disinformation claiming that the 2020 election was undermined by massive voter fraud – an allegation for which no credible evidence has been produced, but that was used as a pretext for the coup. Since the coup, Thazin Oo has appeared as a presenter for the military’s official television channel, Myawady TV, as well as for Myanmar Hard Talk and a pro-military tabloid called Thuriya Nay Wun (known in English as Sun Rays). Thuriya Nay Wun is run by journalist Moe Hein, who wasn’t always known as a military sympathiser. In 2013, he angered the USDP government and businessman Tay Za by writing an article critical of military cronies, calling for them to “jump into the Andaman Sea”. The Irrawaddy reported in 2014 that he was an American citizen and was banned from returning to Myanmar at the time. But today, Moe Hein shares a steady stream of pro-military propaganda on Telegram, and also appears regularly on Myawady TV. He was even among a list of channels that Han Nyein Oo urged his followers to also subscribe to. https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/watermelon-suppression-doxing-campaign-targets-pro-democracy-soldiers-and-police/ 5/10