Fourth Year Under Myanmar Military’s Digital Iron Curtain: A Reflecti...
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Fourth Year Under Myanmar Military’s
Digital Iron Curtain: A Reflection on Digital
Repression and the Path Forward
WAI PHYO MINT / MAR 3, 2025
Protest in Myanmar against Military Coup in February 2021 (Wikipedia Commons)
Digital crackdown has never been tighter in Myanmar. Since the coup in February 2021, Myanmar's
military regime has waged an unrelenting digital war on its people. Now in its fourth year of power, the
junta continues to tighten its digital iron curtain, suppressing rights both online and off through
internet shutdowns, advanced surveillance, and censorship. More than 6,200 people have been killed,
and 28,370 arrested, with at least 1,840 detained for online expression alone — often for something as
simple as a Facebook post or using a virtual private network (VPN). With near total control over the
country’s telecom sector, the junta has proved itself to be one of the world’s worst abusers of digital
repression, hunting down critics and opposition voices, and turning Myanmar into a surveillance state.
On the first day of 2025, the military enacted the controversial Cybersecurity Law, granting itself
further power to block websites and monitor, censor, and punish online expression — a clear signal that
the regime intends to continue intensifying its digital oppression. Yet, the sudden passage of the
legislation that had been dormant for the last two years reveals the military’s desperation: a failing
regime clinging to control, fearing the growing resistance movement that refuses to be silenced and
has, over the last 12 months, shrunk the military’s control to just about 21 % of the country.
In 2024, the junta escalated its digital attacks with foreign-backed technology, committing grave
violations of human rights. It deployed an advanced firewall system at the nation's internet gateways,
blocking VPNs and encrypted messaging apps like Signal. With nearly all VPN services blocked in the
country, people can no longer bypass the junta’s censorial regime, and access banned social media
platforms like Facebook and X, creating an unprecedented crisis of limited connectivity impacting
millions. Meanwhile, the regime advanced its e-ID project and digitally linked the national census,
enhancing its ability to track, monitor, and identify citizens.
3/25/25, 5:10 PM