Notably the conflict between Myanmar s military and the Arakan Army has been ongoing for nearly two years The map above shows the clashes between state security forces and the Arakan Army in Rakhine and Chin states in 2019 as reported by Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security From this reporting it appears as though the townships which experienced internet shutdowns and still do not have quality internet are all townships where clashes frequently occur Figure 1 Timeli e f he i e e h d i Rakhi e a d Chi S a e As demonstrated in Figure 1 the MoTC s directive to shut down the internet in nine townships in Rakhine and Chin States went into effect on June 21 2019 On September 1 2019 the MoTC lifted the shutdowns in five of the nine affected townships The restrictions were then reimplemented on February 3 2020 Internet access was restored in Maungdaw in Rakhine State on May 2 2020 On July 30 2020 the MoTC directed mobile operators to extend the internet restrictions on 3G and 4G in the remaining eight townships in Rakhine and Chin States On April 10 2020 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs led by the State Counsellor Aung San Su Kyi stated that the reason for the internet shutdowns in Rakhine and Chin States was to prevent the misuse of the internet by the Arakan Army for their political and military agenda As of August 25 2020 people in those nine townships except for Maungdaw still do not have access to 3G or 4G According to Telenor the MoTC cited prevention of acts of terrorism as the reason to continue the internet restrictions until October 31 2020