News Audience Suppression Under Myanmar’s Digital Coup 2026 Executive Summary Since the 2021 coup, the military has systematically made access to media a high-risk activity for the public. This report, one of a series on media freedom up to and during the 2025-26 sham elections, analyses 12 billion Facebook data points and reveals the impact of military shutdowns, blocks, and surveillance, more expensive data, and platform algorithms on media audiences. Key Findings • Media outlets increased their total Facebook output by +18% despite the criminalisation of journalism, with regional media production growing by +108% since the coup. • Military-enforced internet shutdowns, blocks, and rising data costs, combined with platform algorithm changes, have cut public access to media by -48% in a systematic act of censorship. • The public has avoided military propaganda, with views of military-affiliated media falling by -76% in favour of more independent reporting. • Extensive digital surveillance has caused shares and comments on media posts to drop by -63% and -42%, in a sign of mass public self-censorship. • The digital public square is becoming polarised, as views of more impartial media fell by -70%, and people increasingly sought partisan echo chambers. While the military has failed to control the media, it has succeeded in turning a universal human right into a high-risk and costly activity. Reclaiming this digital space is no longer just a matter of media survival, but a necessity for the survival of the public’s right to information. Page 2 of 24