5/17/22, 11:25 PM Myanmar’s post-coup Internet: dangers and alternatives said, digital safety ‘became a survival skill. If you don’t know about digital safety, you can’t go out.’ That said, all panellists warned against romanticizing the protests. As Alex put it, in Myanmar, ‘digital literacy is borne out of necessity, not just innovation.’ Furthermore, Myo highlighted that more knowledge about the SAC’s surveillance capacity is necessary for protesters to formulate more permanent means of staying online. Only then will this anti-coup digital culture prevail. What can Big Tech and donors do? While references to the international community tend to focus on state governments and international bodies, the panellists emphasised that the private sector can play a significant role in shifting Myanmar’s political trajectory. ‘We have to keep in mind that tech companies are almost as large, if not larger, than actual governments,’ said Alex ‘so accountability for these businesses should be on the same level as governments. We have seen how staying neutral is effectively giving way to the evils conducted by the military.’ Some tech companies have founders who have travelled to Myanmar. In 2018, when Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey went to Myanmar for a meditation retreat, he was criticised on his own platform for glossing over the role of social media in stoking anti-Rohingya sentiment. Twitter continues to be largely silent about the coup, while TikTok struggles to manage the flow of military propaganda on the platform. ‘When times were good, we were loyal customers, and everyone was happy about it,’ Alex said. ‘Myanmar supported these businesses, we were on these platforms; they made lots of profit, and they had a foothold in Myanmar, without knowing, or caring much, that it was a digitally vulnerable country. Now that things are the other way around, we need [these platforms] on our side. So the question is: where will they stand?’ Facebook, Myanmar’s social media stalwart, is in a more complex position than other social media giants. Although observers sounded the alarm on anti-Rohingya sentiment on Facebook in 2013, they were not taken seriously. By early 2015, Facebook had seven million Burmese users, but only two Burmese-speaking content moderators. Facebook’s automated systems for detecting dangerous content did not work with the Burmese language. The needle only began to move in 2018, after 700,000 Rohingya had fled Rakhine State, when a UN fact-finding mission reported that Facebook was ‘a useful instrument for seeking to spread hate.’ Min Aung Hlaing, now the leader of the SAC, was removed from Facebook thereafter, the first time Facebook banned a country’s military or political leader. Saijai and Myo were cautiously optimistic that Facebook had learned from its mistakes. Saijai spoke positively of three approaches taken by Facebook: taking down posts advocating military violence; barring Facebook accounts associated with military personnel and military-owned businesses; and creating a new “locked profile” feature that prevents non-friends from accessing one’s posts and photos. Myo was likewise glad that Facebook had been consulting with digital rights organisations in the country. https://teacircleoxford.com/essay/myanmars-post-coup-internet-dangers-and-alternatives/ 6/11