“Directive from authorities to block additional websites in Myanmar,” Telenor, May 7, 2020, https://www.telenor.com.mm/en/article/directiveauthorities-block-additional-websites-myanmar.
148
Thompson Chau and John Liu, “Myanmar blocks website of rights group of Tatmadaw,” MMtimes, August 31, 2020,
https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-blocks-website-rights-group-critical-tatmadaw.html
149
“250 organisations condemn Myanmar government order to block websites,” Free Expression Myanmar, April 2, 2020,
http://freeexpressionmyanmar.org/250-organisations-condemn-myanmar-government-order-to-block-websites/.
150
Myanmar is still not included in Google’s transparency report, see “Government requests to remove content,” Google Transparency Report,
accessed in March 2020, https://transparencyreport.google.com/government-removals/by-country; Twitter’s data on information requests and
removals has not been updated since June 2018 and Myanmar is not included, see “Removal requests,” Twitter Transparency, accessed in March 2020,
https://transparency.twitter.com/en/removal-requests.html.
151
“Facebook Transparency Report – Myanmar,” Facebook Transparency, accessed in July 2020, https://transparency.facebook.com/contentrestrictions/country/MM.
152
Tom Miles, “U.N. investigators cite Facebook role in Myanmar crisis,” Reuters, March 12, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmarrohingya-facebook/u-n-investigators-cite-facebook-role-in-myanmar-crisis-idUSKCN1GO2PN.
153
“Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar,” Human Rights Council, March 5, 2019,
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session40/Documents/A_HRC_40_68.docx; “WhatsApp the Media Platform of Choice
for ARSA,” The Irrawaddy, June 12, 2018, https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/whatsapp-the-media-platform-of-choice-for-arsa.html; For
example, the Minister for Information suggested in a June 2018 meeting with Facebook employees that the platform should control inciting or vulgar
content. Meanwhile, the Minister for Religious and Cultural Affairs has been accused of spreading hate speech; “Facebook closes some accounts of
Myanmar hard-liners,” The Nation Thailand, June 9, 2018, https://www.nationthailand.com/breakingnews/30347347.
154
San Moe Tun [Kywe Wa Dana Tun], “Is Facebook’s bias a source of concern for Myanmar’s 2020 election?,” Eleven Media Group, February 11,
2020, https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/is-facebooks-bias-a-source-of-concern-for-myanmars-2020-election-0; Win Naing, “Facebook’s Southeast
Asia director talks about hate speech and the Myanmar elections,” Mizzima, March 9, 2020, http://www.mizzima.com/article/facebooks-southeastasia-director-talks-about-hate-speech-and-myanmar-elections.
155
See for example communications from US Senator Markey to Facebook: “Senator Markey: Facebook’s Efforts to Address Hate Speech in Burma
Still Insufficient,” Ed Markey U.S. Senator for Massachusetts, March 14, 2019, https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markeyfacebooks-efforts-to-address-hate-speech-in-burma-still-insufficient.
156
See for example the discussions that took place during the 2020 Myanmar Digital Rights Forum in Yangon, 28-29 February. Also Hunter Marston,
“The hate speech threat to the 2020 election,” Frontier, April 6, 2020, https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/the-hate-speech-threat-to-the-2020election/.
157
No clear information exists on exactly what Facebook removes and why. Civil society have noted increases in warnings, and Facebook employees
have stated that such actions have increased dramatically over the past 18 months. For example, see discussions at the Myanmar Digital Rights Forum
in Yangon on January 19, 2019.
158
“Removing Myanmar Military Officials From Facebook,” Facebook Newsroom, August 28, 2018,
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/08/removing-myanmar-officials/.
159
Hannah Ellis-Petersen, “Facebook removes accounts associated with Myanmar military,” The Guardian, August 27, 2018,
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/27/facebook-removes-accounts-myanmar-military-un-report-genocide-rohingya.
160
“Facebook closes some accounts of Myanmar hard-liners,” The Nation Thailand, June 9, 2018, https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30347347.
161
Nathaniel Gleicher, “Taking Down More Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior in Myanmar,” Facebook, August 21, 2019,
https://about.fb.com/news/2019/08/more-cib-myanmar/.
162
“Removing More Dangerous Organizations from Facebook in Myanmar,” Facebook Newsroom, February 5, 2019,
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/02/dangerous-organizations-in-myanmar/.
163
“Myanmar’s media not free or fair,” Free Expression Myanmar, May 3, 2020, http://freeexpressionmyanmar.org/myanmars-media-not-free-orfair/.
164
“Myanmar’s media not free or fair,” Free Expression Myanmar, 2020, http://freeexpressionmyanmar.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/myanmarsmedia-not-free-or-fair.pdf.
165
Personal communication with the authors of an upcoming report on cyber harassment of women activists in Myanmar, Yangon, May 2018.
166
See recent discussions at the Myanmar Digital Rights Forum in Yangon, February 28-29, 2020.
167
Myanmar is still not included in Google’s transparency report, see “Government requests to remove content,” Google Transparency Report,
accessed in March 2020, https://transparencyreport.google.com/government-removals/by-country; Twitter’s data on information requests and
removals has not been updated since June 2018 and Myanmar is not included, see “Removal requests,” Twitter Transparency, accessed in March 2020,
https://transparency.twitter.com/en/removal-requests.html.
168
“Facebook Transparency Report – Myanmar,” Facebook Transparency, accessed in July 2020, https://transparency.facebook.com/contentrestrictions/country/MM.
169
Tom Miles, “U.N. investigators cite Facebook role in Myanmar crisis,” Reuters, March 12, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmarrohingya-facebook/u-n-investigators-cite-facebook-role-in-myanmar-crisis-idUSKCN1GO2PN.
170
“Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar,” Human Rights Council, March 5, 2019,
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session40/Documents/A_HRC_40_68.docx; “WhatsApp the Media Platform of Choice
for ARSA,” The Irrawaddy, June 12, 2018, https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/whatsapp-the-media-platform-of-choice-for-arsa.html; For
example, the Minister for Information suggested in a June 2018 meeting with Facebook employees that the platform should control inciting or vulgar
content. Meanwhile, the Minister for Religious and Cultural Affairs has been accused of spreading hate speech; “Facebook closes some accounts of
Myanmar hard-liners,” The Nation Thailand, June 9, 2018, https://www.nationthailand.com/breakingnews/30347347.
171
San Moe Tun [Kywe Wa Dana Tun], “Is Facebook’s bias a source of concern for Myanmar’s 2020 election?,” Eleven Media Group, February 11,
2020, https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/is-facebooks-bias-a-source-of-concern-for-myanmars-2020-election-0; Win Naing, “Facebook’s Southeast
Asia director talks about hate speech and the Myanmar elections,” Mizzima, March 9, 2020, http://www.mizzima.com/article/facebooks-southeastasia-director-talks-about-hate-speech-and-myanmar-elections.
172
See for example communications from US Senator Markey to Facebook: “Senator Markey: Facebook’s Efforts to Address Hate Speech in Burma
Still Insufficient,” Ed Markey U.S. Senator for Massachusetts, March 14, 2019, https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markeyfacebooks-efforts-to-address-hate-speech-in-burma-still-insufficient.
173
See for example the discussions that took place during the 2020 Myanmar Digital Rights Forum in Yangon, 28-29 February. Also Hunter Marston,
“The hate speech threat to the 2020 election,” Frontier, April 6, 2020, https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/the-hate-speech-threat-to-the-2020election/.
174
No clear information exists on exactly what Facebook removes and why. Civil society have noted increases in warnings, and Facebook employees
have stated that such actions have increased dramatically over the past 18 months. For example, see discussions at the Myanmar Digital Rights Forum
in Yangon on January 19, 2019.
147
Free Expression Myanmar (FEM) and Freedom House - Freedom of the Net: Myanmar - အင်တာနက်ေပ*တွင် လွတ်လပ်မ/ - ြမန်မာ2ိ4င်ငံ - Page 50