5/22/22, 12:03 AM Myanmar: Freedom on the Net 2021 Country Report | Freedom House Journalists reporting on the Rohingya crisis or covering the Rakhine State and Shan State conflicts have faced special risks of violence in recent years. 340 During the trial of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, defense lawyers informed the court that the journalists were tortured in detention. 341 In July 2018, Kyaw Soe Oo told the court that he was subjected to sleep deprivation and forced to kneel for hours while he was interrogated. 342 He also said that authorities covered his head with a black hood. Human rights defenders also face intimidation and violence. The scale and volume of threats against human rights defenders, all of whom use the internet as their principal tool for advocacy, varies depending on the issue they focus on in their work. Pro-Rohingya and peace activists report high levels of intimidation via direct and indirect messages and comments online. 343 Allegations of torture have also been made against police, prison guards, and border guards by student activists, 344 monks, 345 and others. 346 Women who are high-profile users or human rights defenders report regular gender-based intimidation and threats of violence. 347 Common harassment tactics include cyberstalking, phishing, hacking, and attempts to cast doubt on women’s credibility, integrity, and character. Many are intimidated through doctored sexual or intimate images, which are sometimes used in extortion attempts. A significant number of internet users have reported experiencing cyberbullying, particularly those who belong to marginalized groups, including young women, members of religious minorities, and the LGBT+ community. 348 C8 0-3 pts Are websites, governmental and private entities, service providers, or individual users subject to widespread hacking and other forms of cyberattack? 1/3 Websites, Facebook accounts, and email services are subjected to technical attacks in Myanmar. Human rights defenders, journalists, and political activists continue to report regular, often weekly, remote attempts to hack their email and Facebook accounts, including during the postcoup period. 349 Digital activists in Myanmar note that Google regularly warns them of “government-backed attackers” attempting to hack their Google accounts. 350 Pro-Rohingya and Muslim activists are among those who report frequent hacking attempts. 351 Police use sophisticated technology to break into the devices of journalists, including Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in 2017. 352 Advanced spyware has been identified in Myanmar, 353 and human rights defenders, journalists, and political activists have reported the presence of spyware on their mobile phones (see C5). 354 Since the coup, several government websites, including those of the central bank and state television stations, have been hacked and defaced with antimilitary messages. 355 In 2017, the websites of the Ministry of Culture, the central bank, and Maubin University, in addition to some private webpages, were hacked and populated with messages reading “Stop Killing Muslims.” 356 The hacks were allegedly carried out by Turkish activists to highlight atrocities against the Rohingya. 357 TOP Microsoft has raised concerns about the large number of computers and devices in Myanmar that are infected by viruses and malware. 358 Kaspersky reported in 2020 that Myanmar comes in second globally for the highest rates of virus infections, with 60 percent of computers and removable media compromised. 359 Browser modifiers are twice more common in Myanmar than the global average, and https://freedomhouse.org/country/myanmar/freedom-net/2021 26/28