CYBER THREAT ANALYSIS Groups have also turned to closed forums on Discord to discuss the ongoing events, mobilise, and spread the information beyond Myanmar’s borders to the international community. An examination of Discord channels identified relating to the Myanmar pro-democracy movement showed that there was a lower adoption rate and active participation than what was observed on Reddit. The identified Discord groups consisted of a handful of members (an average of 50 individuals, at the time of writing), both international and domestic, who shared news and media relating to the happenings within the country. Due to the sensitivity surrounding the group names and participants, Insikt Group has not included links to these Telegram and Discord groups to protect the privacy of the members. Martial Law and Social Media Censorship The combination of the Tatmadaw’s implementation of martial law, their censorship of news and social media, and the restriction of internet and telecommunication services have led netizens to look for alternative means of communication during the coup. Facebook, and their affiliated applications, remain influential in Myanmar for spreading news and providing evidence of military brutality. However, with the banning of social media like Facebook in the early days of the coup in February 2021 and, after their reinstatement, with Facebook removing pages associated with the Myanmar military, it is likely a matter of time before the social media giant and their affiliated applications are once again shut down, or heavily restricted, within the nation. As a result, there has been an increase in conversations on other social media sites and forums regarding alternative means by which people in Myanmar can communicate during the internet restrictions. At the time of writing, a search for TikTok videos relating to the pro-democracy movements in Myanmar returned numerous videos showing the events within the nation. Conversely, there has also been a rise in videos featuring military personnel who threatened to kill protesters, which goes against TikTok’s policies against inciting violence. The videos feature military members brandishing their weapons and using expletives and derogatory terminology to refer to the protesters and the NLD party members. Additionally, the video authors use hashtags associated with celebrities in an attempt to amplify their videos. It has since been reported that TikTok has removed the aforementioned videos for violating TikTok’s Community Guidelines; however, it appears that new videos are resurfacing in their place as we were still able to find evidence of similar videos at the time of writing. 7 Figure 5: TikTok videos showing military brutality in Myanmar (Source: TikTok) Other applications have also gained popularity with the protesters. Insikt Group identified one app that initially appears to be a social networking platform where “Generation Z” users worldwide can connect, chat, and play games; however, the application also has topics related to political and societal issues. An examination of the app showed more than a dozen groups relating to the Myanmar protests where users can chat with each other and share information about the ongoing activities within the country with a wider audience. Pro-Democracy Hacktivism in Myanmar The global hacktivist collective Anonymous announced that they will be supporting the civilians in Myanmar in their protest against the military government. While the announcement did not disclose specifics of their involvement, the poster showed that the group is operating a campaign, titled #OpMyanmar, which they will use to support the protesters. CTA-2021-0324 Recorded Future ® | www.recordedfuture.com