Athens Journal of Law July 2022 If enacted, the authorities would have absolute control over social media and would have the ability to be entirely arbitrary in applying administrative or criminal sanctions. The 2021 draft was subsequently abandoned,61 and a new draft was released in January 2022. 62 The terms that were not defined in the 2021 draft remain undefined in the 2022 draft. Section 29 of the 2021 draft was replaced by Section 35 in the 2022 draft: "35. Prevention, removal, destruction and cessation shall be made accordingly in a timely manner, following the provision of information by the department that a digital platform service provider in Myanmar causes any of the following on cyberspace; (a) Speech, texts, images, video, audio files, signs or other ways of expression causing hate, disrupting unity, stabilisation and peace; (b) Misinformation and disinformation; (c) Sexually explicit material that is not culturally appropriate for Myanmar society to see; Photos, Audio files, Videos, Texts, Signs, Symbols and other expressions; d) Child pornography; Photo, Video, Texts, Symbols and other expressions; (e) Written and verbal statement breaching any existing law; (f) A legitimate complaint of the expression, writing, sending, distribution of speech, text, images, video, sound, symbols and other expressions that damage an individual’s social standing and livelihood." It could be argued that replacing “fake news and rumour” in the 2021 draft with “misinformation and disinformation” in the 2022 draft is a positive action. That the terms remain undefined is a significant defect. 63 It appears that s 35(f) implies an act of online defamation where the item is removed if its contents ”damage an individual’s social standing and livelihood,” regardless of whether the content is true. Section 49 of the 2021 draft remains unchanged as s 59 of the new draft. The use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and similar tools require permission from the Ministry “to set up, access and use networks that are licensed under the Telecom Law”. 64 A new offence has been created in the 2022 draft: "90. No one shall have access to a network using Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology or similar technology on a network licensed under the Telecommunications Law without the permission of the Ministry.65 The illegal use of a VPN will result in a prison term of one to three years and a fine. In the current circumstances, this would effectively criminalise access to Facebook, which the military has blocked since 4 February 2021. As “most people 61 Free Expression Myanmar (2022). Cyber Security Law Draft (anonymous unofficial translation received by Free Expression Myanmar) (2022). 63 For further discussion on these terms see, for instance: Smith (2021); Smith & Perry (2021); Wardle (2017). 64 S. 62 of the 2022 draft. 65 S. 90 of the new draft. 62 315 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4150894