The ICT SWIA was published in October 2015 after a consultation on the draft report and recommendations. In addition to the assessment of human rights risks and impacts, the SWIA includes recommendations to all stakeholders, including government. To the Myanmar government, these were: 1. Establish a coherent policy framework for the ICT sector with adequate safeguards. 2. Improve ICT-specific legal and regulatory reforms to ensure appropriate safeguards around Government activities and a coherent framework for responsible business conduct in the ICT sector. 3. Improve wider legislative and regulatory reforms on freedom of expression and association, land use and management and labour issues to ensure appropriate safeguards around Government activities and a coherent framework for responsible business conduct in the ICT sector. 4. Adopt a rights-respecting lawful interception model and maintain open access to the Internet to ensure Myanmar does not become a modern “surveillance state” (detailed recommendations were provided for a rights-respecting model) 5. Improve data protection standards and cybersecurity. 6. Demonstrate a commitment to free and open communication through a modern Freedom of Information law and build meaningful transparency systems across Government. 7. Accelerate the implementation of Myanmar’s universal service commitments. 8. Improve digital literacy of users and send clear signals about respectful use of ICT’s. 9. Strengthen requirements for responsible business conduct in the ICT sector, including by requiring companies to provide operational grievance mechanisms for anyone impacted by their activities, and to report on their implementation. Each of recommendation was aligned to specific UNGPs, and came with detailed pointers for implementation. MCRB’s 2015 SWIA was prescient in predicting human rights risks associated with the legal framework and lack of human rights safeguards. These have since materialised as a result of exercise of the legal provisions by the authorities. They include the first use of internet shutdowns in Myanmar in June 2019 in townships in Rakhine and Chin State as well as government requirements for surveillance which they sought to enforce the following year. An increasing number of individuals, including government officials and politicians, but also private citizens, used the defamation clause ‘66d’ concerning criticism on social media, and this increased after 2016. It is notable that these human rights risks materialised under the elected National League for Democracy government. Shutdowns have intensified following the 1 February 2021 military coup, with internet shutdowns and website blocks widespread. Follow up Advocacy on Policy and Regulation Following publication of the SWIA in October 2015, MCRB pursued advocacy with government, Parliamentarians, and the National Human Rights Commission in line with the SWIA recommendations. SWIA Recommendations and updates were distilled into policy briefs in early 2019 on: • The Legal and Policy Framework for Information Communication Technology (ICT) In Myanmar: Implications for Human Rights • Cyber Security and Cyber Crime: Issues for Myanmar • A Data Protection Law That Protects Privacy: Issues for Myanmar Sensitivity: Open