ြခံ$ငံသ & း&ံ သပ် ချက် Overview အင်တာနက်လွတလ ် ပ်မ1 အေြခအေန ၂၀၁၈ 2018 ၂၀၁၉ 2019 ၂၀၂၀ 2020 ၂၀၂၁ 2021 Internet Freedom Status1 လွတ်လပ်မ1မF.ိ လွတ်လပ်မ1မF.ိ လွတ်လပ်မ1မF.ိ လွတ်လပ်မ1မF.ိ Not Free Not Free Not Free Not Free A) လက်လ.မ်းမ.ီမ1အ ေပ4 အတားအဆီးများ (၀-၂၅ မ.တ)် ၁၀ မ.တ် ၁၀ မ.တ် ၇ မ.တ် ၄ မ.တ် Obstacles to Access (0–25 pts) 10 10 7 4 B) အေ8ကာင်းအရာများကိ& ကန်သ ့ တ်မ1 (၀–၃၅ မ.တ)် ၁၆ မ.တ် ၁၆ မ.တ် ၁၃ မ.တ် ၇ မ.တ် Limits on Content (0–35 pts) 16 16 13 7 C) အသံး& ြပ$သ= အခွင ့်အေရး ချိ$းေဖာက်မ1များ (၀-၄၀ မ.တ)် ၁၀ မ.တ် ၁၀ မ.တ် ၁၁ မ.တ် ၆ မ.တ် Violations of User Rights (0–40 pts) 10 10 11 6 စ&စ&ေပါင်း* (၀-၁၀၀) ၃၆ မ.တ် ၃၆ မ.တ် ၃၁ မ.တ် ၁၇ မ.တ် Total* (0–100) 36 36 31 17 Internet freedom in Myanmar collapsed following the February 2021 military coup, marking the most severe decline ever documented in Freedom on the Net. As part of its attempt to crush dissent and maintain power, the military junta shut down internet service, blocked social media platforms and websites, seized control of the telecommunications infrastructure, and ramped up intrusive surveillance. Despite these and other obstacles, including detentions and egregious physical violence, people in Myanmar continued to use digital tools to organize and voice opposition to the coup whenever possible. Myanmar’s transition from military dictatorship to democracy had stalled under the leadership of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which came to power in relatively free elections in 2015. The military retained significant influence over politics under the constitution it drafted, and the government largely failed to uphold human rights and to prioritize peace and security in areas affected by armed conflict. A 2017 military operation and ongoing violence has forced hundreds of thousands of people from the Rohingya ethnic group to seek refuge in Bangladesh, and those remaining in Rakhine State continue to face the threat of atrocity crimes. Despite significant flaws and disenfranchisement, the November 2020 parliamentary elections resulted in a convincing victory for the NLD and a major defeat for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). That party’s claims of fraud were cited as justification for the ensuing coup, in which the military ousted the NLDled civilian government. A Myanmar translation of the report will be available soon. Key Developments, June 1, 2020 – May 31, 2021 • The military began shutting down internet services nationwide shortly before the February 2021 coup (see A3), and in the subsequent months it seized direct control over state-owned mobile service providers that accounted for more than half of all mobile subscriptions in the country. Parallel pressure on private-sector providers was so severe that Norway’s Telenor, one of the market leaders, sold off its mobile operations in Myanmar shortly after the coverage period (see A4). • The ruling junta also assumed control over Myanmar’s telecommunications regulator, quashing any independence it previously had through a series of opaque directives and threats to staff (see A5). Free Expression Myanmar (FEM) and Freedom House - Freedom of the Net: Myanmar - အင်တာနက်ေပ*တွင် လွတ်လပ်မ/ - ြမန်မာ2ိ4င်ငံ - Page 2