Regime’s proposed Anti-Online Fraud Law targets dissent, not scams 8 June 2026 Introduction While cyber-scam networks and trafficking compounds constitute a severe global crisis, the military regime’s proposed Anti-Online Fraud Bill (May 2026) is not a genuine law enforcement measure. Instead, it functions as both a diplomatic smokescreen and a tool of further repression. Globally, the military seeks to appear cooperative in addressing transnational cyber-scams and to appease mechanisms such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), aiming to avoid blacklisting and ease its access to international finance and investment. Yet the illicit cyber-scam industry is enabled by the military’s own corruption, complicity, and the collapse of the rule of law, from which it profits. Rather than dismantling criminal networks, the draft Bill serves as a cosmetic regulatory façade intended to mislead. Domestically, it further institutionalises mass surveillance, legalises arbitrary seizure of private assets, and expands the death penalty. It also functions as another security tool to monitor, target, and suppress human rights defenders, civil society organisations, media, and the political opposition using alternative networks to evade military control. Legalising mass surveillance The draft Bill further entrenches violations of the right to privacy in Myanmar by mandating realtime, centralised State access to private communications and financial data, and by effectively criminalising digital practices used to evade military surveillance. Mandatory API integration Article 57 requires private banks, telecommunications companies, and internet service providers (ISPs) to integrate their digital infrastructure directly with a State-run central network through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). In practice, this compels private actors to build the technical pathways through which the State can access communications and financial data across sectors. The provision also requires those companies to bear the full costs of establishing and