by BANGKOK (AP) – Myanmar’s military government has launched a major effort to block free Internet communication, shutting down access to virtual private networks, or VPNs, which can be used to circumvent blocked websites. and on prohibited services.
The effort to restrict access to information began at the end of May, according to mobile phone operators, internet service providers, a large opposition group and media reports.
The military government that came to power in February 2021 after ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, has previously made some suitable efforts to push traffic on the internet, especially in recent months after taking them over.
Local media reports say the attack on internet usage includes random street searches of people’s mobile phones to check VPN requests, with a fine if any are found, although it is unclear if payments are an official measure.
On Friday, the Burmese language service of Radio Free Asia, which is funded by the US Government, reported that security forces arrested around 25 people from Myanmar’s central coastal Ayeyarwady region and fined them this week after VPN apps were found on their mobile phones .
As the army faces strong armed challenges from pro-democracy guerrillas across the country, amounting to a civil war, it has also made a regular practice of shutting down civilian communications in areas where fighting is taking place. While this may serve tactical purposes, it also makes it difficult to publish evidence of alleged human rights abuses.
According to a report released last month by Athan, a free speech advocacy group in Myanmar, almost 90 out of 330 townships across the country have had internet access or telephone service – or both – cut off. cut off by the authorities.
The resistance to the military takeover in 2021 has relied heavily on social media, particularly Facebook, to organize street protests. As non-violent resistance escalated into armed struggle and other independent media were shut down or forced underground, the need for online information grew.
The resistance scored a victory in the cybersphere when Facebook and other major social media platforms banned members of the Myanmar military, due to their alleged violations of human and civil rights, and also blocked ads from most entities commercial linked to military.
This year, widely used free VPN services began to fail at the end of May, with users receiving messages that they could not connect, keeping them from social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp and some websites. VPNs connect users to their desired sites through third-party computers, making it nearly impossible for internet service providers and governments to see what the users are actually connecting to.
Internet users, including online retailers, have been complaining for the past two weeks about severe slowdowns, saying they could not easily view or upload videos and posts or send messages.
Operators of Myanmar’s military-backed top telecommunications companies MPT, Ooredoo, Atom and Mytel, as well as fiber internet services, told the Associated Press on Friday that access to the services of Facebook, Instagram, X, WhatsApp and VPN across the country at the end. of May by order of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
The AP tried to contact a spokesman for the Ministry of Transport and Communications for comment but did not receive a response.
The operators said that VPNs are not currently authorized for use, but advised users to try rotating through different services to see if any work.
Testing by the AP of more than two dozen VPN apps found that only one person could hold a connection, and it was very slow.
The ban on VPNs has not yet been publicly announced by the military government.
The military government in late 2021 drafted a cybersecurity law but it was not enacted to punish anyone who uses a VPN without permission from the Ministry of Transport and Communications. He seeks a maximum prison sentence of three years and a fine of 5,000,000 Myanmar kyats ($1,125 at the free market exchange rate) or both.
Khit Thit, an online news service sympathetic to the resistance movement, reported earlier this month that army generals from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, along with a Myanmar technology company and Chinese communications experts, collaborated on measures to block VPNs.
China is famous for having a very strong firewall to control Internet traffic and has a warm relationship with the military government.
The National Unity Government, a major opposition organization that calls itself the country’s legitimate government, issued a statement on June 8 condemning the actions of the military government that “restrict and hinder the basic human rights of the people” and pledged to continue “building . an independent internet network in places free from the control of the terrorist army.”
