9/24/21, 8:39 PM The State of Internet Censorship in Myanmar | OONI imposing systematic restrictions of information control to limit social mobilisation around key political events. From 1962, the country was ruled by the military junta up until 2011 when it was officially dissolved and replaced with a nominally civilian government following the 2010 general election. Although the 2010 election was criticised for declaring the National League for Democracy (NLD) illegal, and only allowing government sanctioned political parties to contest in it, it marked the transition of the military’s movement towards more openness, with the government’s political reforms which included ending the house arrest of NLD’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the release of 200 political prisoners as part of a general amnesty, relaxation of press censorship, and institution of new labour laws. Drastic reforms in September 2011 marked the military government’s transition to more openness, with significant relaxations of the country’s censorship policies. Censorship tests conducted by ONI in 2012 found reductions in the scope and depth of content filtered in 2012 compared to in 2005, with a majority of previously censored political content ranging from independent news sites, the websites of opposition parties, and critical political content made accessible. Despite that, a culture of self-censorship remains, with many media organisations taking precaution to avoid accusations of libel and state security charges. With the new transition towards a free democratic system following the win of the opposition party, National League for Democracy in the most recent 2015 election, it is imperative to continue the questioning of the true breadth and depth of the current state of censorship in Myanmar. Myanmar’s transition to a civilian government in 2011 began an economic overhaul aimed at attracting foreign investors, and integrating Myanmar into the global economy. This, along with the easing of most Western sanctions has led to its accelerated growth in 2013 and 2014, with a GDP growth of 8.7%. Despite this, due to the former military government’s isolationist policies and economic mismanagement, Myanmar’s income gap is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy remains under the control of supporters of the previous military government. Myanmar ranks as a corrupt nation, with a Corruption Perceptions Index rank of 136 out of 176, and a rating of 28 out of 100 as of 2016. Network landscape and internet penetration As of 2016, internet penetration rates in Myanmar are at 19.3%, quickly growing due to the sharp increase in its mobile penetration rate with the emergence of cheap mobile internet and improved telecommunication infrastructure. Despite the strong growth in Myanmar’s mobile penetration rate from 7% in 2013 to 85% by 2016, fixed line telephone penetration remains low at just under 1%. Prior to September 2011, a combination of government censorship, deliberate infrastructure and technical constraints, deliberately controlled internet speeds with proxy-caching servers, and government restrictions on pricing limited the internet penetration rates in Myanmar, with it being as low as 0.2% in 2010. The government’s expansive control over the internet was largely facilitated by the fact that users were limited to only two ISPs, Myanmar Posts and Telecom (MPT) and Bagan Cybertech (currently Yatanarpon Telecom), both of which were state-controlled by the Myanmar government. With low computer ownership, most users relied on internet cafés, promoted as “Public Access Centres” (PAC) for internet access, with many internet cafés utilising proxy sites and circumvention tools to bypass government restrictions. https://ooni.org/post/myanmar-report/ 4/19