5/17/23, 2:10 PM Is Telegram profiting from Myanmar’s nightmare? · Global Voices Brief Translation: Pro-terrorism groups and media are calling for a silent strike and pot strike on Accounts with premium badges that February 1. Whoever shares that activity will go to prison. Please send their information secretly to the receive people's private information following accounts. (screenshot taken on March 17, 2023) and dox them. As an example, the Justice Seeker Group-JSG telegram channel, infamous for content that incites violence, posted an assassination call on February 2, 2022. The original post and @JSG20221 account are now inaccessible for reasons unknown. Pro-military channels and users tend to self-delete their messages and change their URLs to avoid getting restricted. Even after a mass reporting campaign, Telegram removed a few pro-military Telegram channels and did not clearly outline their banning process regarding banning harmful Telegram channels in Myanmar. There are problematic channels growing around the Myanmar Telegram market, but the company has largely ignored the issues. On the last day of January 2023, pro-military channels shared threats to anti-coup civilians and a request for information about social media users who shared silent strike [https://advox.globalvoices.org/2023/02/10/myanmar-media-two-years-after-the-2021-coup-resistance-resiliencerestoration/] posts. The silent strike [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/feb/01/silent-strike-empties-streets-in-myanmar-on-anniversary-of-coup] was a protest movement where pro-democracy citizens in Myanmar stayed at home to show they didn’t accept the military coup. In the message, they mentioned four Telegram accounts that were collecting information about protesters. Those four accounts are Han Nyein Oo, Kyaw Swar, Bo Kyaw, and DS — each with premium badges next to their names. As of March 17, 2023, Myanmar pro-military Telegram users who have connected to the restricted channel violating Telegram terms of service [https://telegram.org/tos] had purchased eight premium account subscriptions, with six of them still active on the plan. Telegram is avoiding addressing the current situation of human rights violation campaigns on Myanmar Telegram channels by allowing them to exist on their platform as premium subscribers. Since the coup, a total of 21,632 people have been arrested and 3,447 killed, according to the briefing [https://aappb.org/?p=24821] of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) on April 28, 2023. The National Unity Government (NUG) [https://www.nugmyanmar.org/en/] , an exiled government that emerged on April 16, 2021, is struggling to get international recognition https://globalvoices.org/2023/05/12/is-telegram-profiting-from-myanmars-nightmare/ 3/4