regulatory conditions and also that there is good compliance," Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke told Reuters. "When we wrote off the business in May, we felt we could still operate in the country, although it was challenging. But after that, it has worsened." the company added in a statement. After seizing power, the Tatmadaw drastically ramped up online repression. It enacted legal amendments to gain access to user information and issued daily notices to mobile operators and internet service providers to blacklist certain websites and VPNs. Telenor indeed found itself in limbo. Without offering details of how and by whom the metadata [5] of its former customers would be handled, they hastily sold to M1 Group, a business which has a history of working with oppressive regimes such as Sudan and Syria. M1 Group’s founder is Lebanon's current Prime Minister, who is accused of significant corruption by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in the Pandora Papers. In an interview, Sutawan ‘Ploy’ Chanprasert, founder of Digital Reach - a non-profit organization looking at the impact of tech on freedom of expression, privacy and digital security in Southeast Asia - stated: “Selling the business to M1 Group would weaken human rights in the country, especially the right to privacy and freedom of expression. However, it should be noted that no business that respects human rights would operate easily inside of the country. Only those that comply with the junta’s orders would be able to survive.” The military junta has forced telecommunications providers to install intercept spyware, giving them the capacity to listen in on calls, view text messages and emails, and track the location of users without the assistance of telecommunications and Internet companies. “However, as Telenor exits the country, they should be more responsible. If the metadata of their users fell into the junta’s hands, it is very obvious that this will make people even more vulnerable to having their rights being threatened,” Ploy added. When people get arrested, they are led to interrogation centers. They are first forced to unlock their phone and uncover their lists of contacts and conversations on messaging apps, including the encrypted ones that the military council now has the tools to retrieve. To register a SIM Card, Myanmar citizens have to provide their National Registration Citizen (NRC) number, which contains a photo and other personal information and captures details from names in their network to activities and locations. All this information can be exposed by unlocking one phone or account, even more so that Telenor was the favorite choice of activists. In an interview, Matthew Mullen, founder of Article 30, a Business and Human Rights advisory, and the author of "Pathways that Changed Myanmar" (Zed Books, 2016), adds: "Telenor has faced a lot of pushes and pulls. There have been calls for boycotts and pleas to stay. That reflects the battle for the Internet in Myanmar: people want and need the internet, and the Tatmadaw is seeking every opportunity to exploit that demand. Stakeholders knew that 15