5/22/22, 12:03 AM Myanmar: Freedom on the Net 2021 Country Report | Freedom House Myanmar’s transition from military dictatorship to democracy had stalled under the leadership of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which came to power in relatively free elections in 2015. The military retained significant influence over politics under the constitution it drafted, and the government largely failed to uphold human rights and to prioritize peace and security in areas affected by armed conflict. A 2017 military operation and ongoing violence has forced hundreds of thousands of people from the Rohingya ethnic group to seek refuge in Bangladesh, and those remaining in Rakhine State continue to face the threat of atrocity crimes. Despite significant flaws and disenfranchisement, the November 2020 parliamentary elections resulted in a convincing victory for the NLD and a major defeat for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). That party’s claims of fraud were cited as justification for the ensuing coup, in which the military ousted the NLD-led civilian government. Key Developments, June 1, 2020 – May 31, 2021 The military began shutting down internet services nationwide shortly before the February 2021 coup (see A3), and in the subsequent months it seized direct control over state-owned mobile service providers that accounted for more than half of all mobile subscriptions in the country. Parallel pressure on private-sector providers was so severe that Norway’s Telenor, one of the market leaders, sold off its mobile operations in Myanmar shortly after the coverage period (see A4). The ruling junta also assumed control over Myanmar’s telecommunications regulator, quashing any independence it previously had through a series of opaque directives and threats to staff (see A5). Military authorities ordered the blocking of social media platforms, online news outlets, and certain financial-services websites, with some remaining inaccessible at the end of the coverage period (see A3, B1, and B3). As of June 2021, the military had revoked the licenses of seven major media outlets that were reporting on anticoup protests, and telecommunications companies were ordered to block their websites (see B1 and B6). The coup leaders’ efforts to disrupt internet service and block online platforms were intended in part to suppress the organization of further protests. Authorities also banned virtual private networks (VPNs) and employed detentions and physical violence to punish users who expressed support for the anticoup movement. Nevertheless, citizens continued their attempts to mobilize via digital tools (see B8 and C4). The coup effectively nullified the constitution and the limited free expression protections it had offered, and the country’s Constitutional Tribunal—tasked with holding state officials accountable under the charter—was replaced by the military days after it seized power (see C1). In March and May 2021, new evidence supported suspicions that the military was using extraction and interception technology to surveil protesters. The military also suspended limited privacy protections provided by the Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizens and issued an TOPdata amendment to the Electronic Transactions Law that increased government access to personal (see C5). Journalists, digital activists, and ordinary users were held in pretrial detention and sentenced to prison terms for their online activity in the months following the coup. One Democratic Voice of https://freedomhouse.org/country/myanmar/freedom-net/2021 2/28