To: Mr. Sigve Brekke President and CEO of Telenor Group Date: 15th February, 2022 Subject: Open letter from civil society organizations and Myanmar users on Telenor’s plan to sell its Myanmar business to a company affiliated with the military junta 694 civil society organizations signed and issued a statement on 12 February to oppose the Norway-based Telenor Group to sell Telenor Myanmar to Investcom, a company affiliated with the military junta as the data of 18 million users could fall into the hands of the terrorist regime through Investcom, endangering the lives of the Myanmar users. On February 10, a signature campaign was launched to protest the Norwegian government's and Telenor's plans on the sale. Within the first five days 240,000 people from all over the world have signed the petition addressing the President and CEO of Telenor together with the Prime Minister of Norway. Since the coup on 1 February 2021, the people of Myanmar have experienced various forms of oppression and violence by the military regime such as arson, shooting, unlawful arrest, torture, sexual assault and confiscation of property that have been widely reported to the international community. The efforts of Myanmar people to restore democracy to their country with the help of public protests against the military coup have been violently cracked down. More than ten thousand people have been arrested and tortured, and more than 1,500 innocent people, including children, have been killed. The terrorist military regime not only suppressed unarmed protests to restore democracy, but also limited access to the Internet, access to the media, freedom of expression, and rights to information. In the past year, in addition to routinely ordering complete and partial internet shutdowns and blocking Internet services which the military did not want people to access, the regime also forced telecom operators to raise the price of mobile internet and enacted various legal measures to cement their “digital coup” in Myanmar. Even during the time of limited and restricted internet conditions, Myanmar people boycotted telecom operators such as military-linked Mytel and subscribed to the services of Telenor. Most customers placed their trust in Telenor as they hoped that a Norway-based company would operate in accordance with international human rights principles Although Telenor Group is aware of the many atrocities the people of Myanmar are currently facing, we were disappointed to learn that Telenor Myanmar was the first company which decided to withdraw from the country ignoring the trust and the very reliance of people on them. In our first open letter on 31 January 2022, we have already expressed our grave concern regarding the announced sale of Telenor Myanmar to the Lebanese M1 Group owned by former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. This decision was not in line with the principle in King Harald’s 2014 speech delivered at his state visit to Myanmar that stated: ”Norway gives priority to advocating social responsibility on the part of Norwegian companies, both when they operate in Norway and abroad.” On 4 February 2022, Myanmar Now reported that Telenor Myanmar would be sold to Investcom Pte Ltd, of which the majority shareholder will be Shwe Byain Phyu Group, a military-linked conglomerate with ties to businesses sanctioned by the US, the UK and the EU. As part of the sale, Telenor customers’ user data is also expected to be transferred into the hands of this entity.