Restriction on Internet Freedom by the Junta
(3) Violations of User Rights
Campaigns condemning military coups were conducted widely, not only on the ground but
also online. The junta oppressed protesters not only by shutting down the internet but also
by checking the phones of social media users and charging those uploaded posts about antiregime. Prominent social media users – including actors, poets, artists, musicians, and social
influencers who posted against the military junta, were detained with a charge under Section
505(A) of the Penal Code. Furthermore, the government staff who joined Civil Disobedience
Movement (CDM) were detained and charged under Section 505(A) and 505(B) of Penal
Code, and Section 52(A) of the Counter-Terrorism Law for persuading others to get involved
in CDM through messenger.19
Arrest of four youths due to the change of their Facebook profiles with the NUG frame
The junta ordered to make proper documentation of people who changed their profiles with
the “Accept NUG-Reject Military” frame on Facebook social media, on August 11. Four youths
from Thlangpang Village in Matupi Township of Chin State were arrested for updating their
profiles with NUG frame during an online public campaign addressing the UN to acknowledge
the NUG. They were charged under Section 52(A) of the Counter-Terrorism Law and then
freed at 6 p.m., August 20.20
Freezing Kpay accounts and arresting users
Due to internet services shutdowns since the military’s coup, financial services were in the
most difficult state, and freezing of the accounts of mobile banking users was also in place.
Since the military regime, withdrawal of money from banks were annoying and online
19
(2021, March 5). “Facebook ေပမှာ CDM လံေဆာ်မ စွပ်စွဲချက်နဲ ိုင်ငံြခားေရးဝန်ထမ်းေတွ တရားစွဲခံထားရ”.
Available at https://web.facebook.com/rfaburmese/posts/10160887037583128?_rdc=1&_rdr
20
Kho Nong Thone. (2021, August 31). “NUG ပိုဖိုင်သံုးထားြခင်းေကာင့် ချင်းလူငယ် ၄ ဦးကို စစ်ေကာင်စီ အမဖွင့်”.
Available at https://www.bnionline.net/mm/news-84033
8