1/12/24, 11:44 AM Examining the Situation of Digital Repression in Myanmar in 2023 Social media-related arrests in 2023, as reported on MOI's Telegram channel According to statements released from the Telegram Channel of the Ministry of Information by the SAC, it was found that more than 550 individuals were under surveillance and detained for their comments and posts on Facebook, the popular social media platform in the country. It has been identified that individuals who expressed their condolences by changing their profile photos to black on social media for the civilians who passed away in Pazigyi Village due to the SAC’s air strikes, were arrested. Reputed people like journalist U Kyaw Min Swe, actor May PanChi, singers May La Than Zin and Shwe Yi Thein Tan also had been arrested in it. Hip Hop singer Byuhar who criticized the deteriorated issue of the regular electric outage was sentenced to 20 years in prison. U Ye Htut, in addition, who served as a Information Minister in the period of U Thein Government, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison because he denounced the SAC’s policy. It was found that individuals who commented on and shared content from media outlets they disliked, as well as those who commented on social media pages supporting revolutionary forces or shared announcements and news about the revolutions, have been arrested by the SAC while suppressing freedom of expression in the digital space. For surveillance and disclosure of the activities of the civilian on the internet, SAC used stooge Telegram channels of SAC like Han Nyein Oo, Mine Wai, Kyaw Swar and so on. It happened here in this sort of case, after a person disclosed by stooge Telegram channel as an activist or confrontation to SAC, members of SAC found and detained him/her. In that situation, we observed that many civilians were located and detained by SAC members based on the descriptions provided about a person on these SAC’s stooge channels. As a consequence, being given a chance to use the Telegram Channel, SAC, is one of the main reasons for the silence of the freedom of expression in Myanmar. Surveillance of social media and arrest scenarios overseen by the SAC When we observe the four social media channels (Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, Telegram), SAC and its supporters are mainly emphasizing Facebook activities. It was analyzed that 97.16% of arrested cases due to posting, sharing and commenting on social media occurred due to activities on Facebook. 2.66% of cases happened due to the Tiktok activities and others have less than 1 %. As a result of digital repression situations, Myanmar has been described in “Freedom on the Net Report(2023)” of Freedom House as the second worst country in internet freedom. https://www.myanmarinternet.info/post/blog_014-1 2/8