5/24/22, 7:49 PM Myanmar blocks “fake news” websites amid COVID-19 pandemic | OONI Background Since opening up the market to the foreign telecom operators in 2013, Myanmar has experienced the connectivity revolution – unprecedented growth in internet connectivity and mobile services. While that change enabled millions of people to access the internet, providing new opportunities and services, it has also created new concerns for the people’s rights on the internet, particularly regarding freedom of expression and privacy. Myanmar lacks a data protection law, even though civil society has been advocating for privacy protections over the years. In the absence of proper rule of law and a lawful interception framework, the authorities have confiscated devices from human rights defenders, activists, and journalists and pulled information from these devices. The government and military are also leveraging increasingly sophisticated surveillance hardware/software - putting activists and journalists at growing risk. According to research published in March 2017 by the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), Sinar Project, and the Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO), internet access was relatively unrestrained. Out of 1,927 sites that were tested for censorship in six local vantage points in Myanmar, only five sites presented TCP/IP and HTTP anomalies. No block pages were detected as part of that study that could confirm any instances of internet censorship in Myanmar. However, in evaluating internet freedom levels more broadly, Freedom House gave Myanmar a score of 36 out of 100 (“Not Free” status), according to the Freedom on the Net 2019 report. Internet shutdown Nine townships in the Rakhine and Chin States experienced an internet shutdown that lasted over ten months (as of 30th April 2020), marking one of the world’s longest internet shutdowns. On 2nd May 2020, the Myanmar Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) allowed all operators to restore internet services in the Maungdaw township in Rakhine. However, the authorities ordered four townships (Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Myebon, and Paletwa) to remain under an internet shutdown until 1st August 2020 due to security reasons. It remains unclear if internet access can be restored in the remaining four townships (Ponnagyun, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Minbya) that have been under an internet shutdown since 20th June 2019. Blocking directive In March 2020, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Myanmar received a directive from the Ministry of Transport and Communications to block 230 websites. Telenor Myanmar published a press release disclosing this blocking request by authorities and stating that they blocked access to 230 websites by serving a block page. They mention that they initially refrained from blocking access to sites that fell under the “fake news” category, but eventually complied with the blocking request following a risk assessment. Telenor Myanmar also notes that the blocking of “fake news” sites is part of a larger effort to tackle disinformation in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. https://ooni.org/post/2020-myanmar-blocks-websites-amid-covid19/ 2/14