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the junta. As has previously been exposed by Justice For Myanmar, Shwe Byain Phyu Group has business links to the military conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) including for the import to Myanmar of petroleum and the company and its founders are sanctioned by the USA and Canada.40 In a reply to Justice For Myanmar, Investcom claimed that ATOM does not “design, direct &/or conduct mass, unlawful surveillance” and that it applies internal humanrights due-diligence procedures aligned with the UN Guiding Principles”. The company noted that it was “aware of claims relating to third-party technologies in Myanmar” but, referring to company policy, refused to “confirm or deny the existence of third-party systems”. Ooredoo Myanmar Limited Ooredoo Myanmar Limited (OML) is one of the four nationwide mobile network operators in Myanmar. It has implemented Geedge systems in Yangon and Mandalay. It was established as a fully owned subsidiary of Ooredoo Q.P.S.C., domiciled in Qatar and majority owned by the state of Qatar.41 Founded in 2014, OML along with Telenor entered Myanmar when there were no laws in place to regulate the use of interception technologies. Before and immediately after entering Myanmar, concerns were raised publicly regarding the human rights risks of operating a telecommunications company in Myanmar, including with Ooredoo Group's CEO directly.42 On September 8, 2022, Ooredoo announced the entry into a sales agreement for OML through its parent company, Ooredoo Asian Investments Pte. Ltd. (OAI), domiciled in Singapore, to Nine Communications Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-domiciled special project vehicle.43 Ooredoo's exit was completed on May 31, 2024.44 According to Singaporean registry data accessed in August 2025, Nine Communications biggest shareholder is Nyan Win through the Singaporeregistered company, Sunny Aqua Mountain Pte. Ltd., followed by Aion Ventures Limited and then the Myanmar companies National Telecommunication Development Co. Ltd., Pyi Taw Tha Pyi Telecom Co. Ltd. and Mahar Kyunt Mong Co. Ltd. Aion Ventures Limited is domiciled in the British Virgin Islands, a jurisdiction that is required to comply with UK sanctions on Myanmar. Frontiir Company Limited (Myanmar Net) Frontiir is one of Myanmar's largest ISPs and it has implemented Geedge technology in Yangon. Founded in 2013 by two US citizens and a Canadian, it is led by Myanmar-born US citizen Godfrey Tan (Wai Lin Tun).45 Frontiir provides 20

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Silk Road of Surveillance: The role of China's Geedge Networks and Myanmar telecommunications operators in the junta's digital terror campaign

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Burmese
English

Topic

Digital Rights
Digital Surveillance
Internet Restrictions
Military Coup

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Justice for Myanmar

Date Published: Sep 9, 2025

Abstract: A new leaked dataset reveals the Chinese company Geedge Networks’ business in Myanmar and exposes a significant number of telecommunications companies that are implementing sophisticated surveillance and censorship technology on behalf of the illegal Myanmar military junta. The leaked dataset offers detailed insights into the inner workings of Chinese internet surveillance and censorship technology that is exported to Myanmar by a company that frames its work as associated with China's Belt and Road Initiative. The dataset has been reviewed by a coalition of media and non-governmental/civil society organisations through the Great Firewall Export project made up of Amnesty International, InterSecLab, the Globe and Mail, Paper Trail Media, Tor Project, DER STANDARD, and Follow The Money. The Internet in Myanmar since the military’s February 2021 illegal coup attempt is among the most restricted in the world. The rolling out of a commercialised version of China’s Great Firewall gives the junta unprecedented access to and control over the online activities of 33.4 million internet users in Myanmar. Notably, the hardware, software and support provided by Geedge Networks to the Myanmar military junta enables the tracking of network traffic at the individual level and can identify the geographic location of mobile subscribers in real time by linking their activity to specific cell identifiers (cell IDs). As such, the junta has an enhanced capability to effectively track down, arrest, torture and kill human rights defenders, journalists and revolutionary forces across the country. The military junta can do so with the direct assistance of telecommunications companies in Myanmar exposed in the dataset – including ATOM (formerly Telenor Myanmar), Mytel, Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), Ooredoo Myanmar, Frontiir, StreamNet , Golden TMH Telecom, Internet Maekhong Network (IM-Net), Myanmar Broadband Telecom (MBT), Myanmar Telecommunication Network (MTN), Campana, Global Technology Group and China Unicom – that are integral to the set-up of a national firewall for the Myanmar junta. This investigation into the business dealings of Geedge Networks with the Myanmar junta builds on a June 2024 report by Justice For Myanmar into how Geedge was initiating country-wide internet surveillance and censorship through the junta-controlled Information Technology and Cyber Security Department (ITCSD) of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC). 1 By providing hardware and software to the illegal Myanmar military junta, Geedge may be aiding and abetting in the commission of crimes against humanity, including the acts of torture and killing, carried out by members of the junta within a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population. Further investigation is required on this. In the meantime, Geedge Networks is limiting the rights to freedom of expression, association, and digital movement of the people of Myanmar. For that reason, Geedge Networks should be targeted with international sanctions, and individuals in directive and leadership positions within the company should be investigated for aiding and abetting violations of international human rights laws and potentially also international crimes. Telecommunications companies identified in the Geedge dataset as supporting the junta’s online surveillance machinery should be held to account for the serious risks of online and offline violence, and de facto harms such as arrests, torture and killings, of Myanmar civilians. Geedge Networks is closely affiliated with the Chinese state and export of its systems to Myanmar align with the Belt and Road Initiative. China’s involvement in the mass surveillance and repression of the civilian population in Myanmar is part of a broader pattern in which the Chinese government remains a principal supplier of arms to the Myanmar junta, aiding and abetting the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Silk Road of Surveillance: The role of China's Geedge Networks and Myanmar telecommunications operators in the junta's digital terror campaign

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