Myanmar and the Oppressive Side of the Digital Revolution

the Globalist
By Andrés Ortega, March 23, 2021

Surveillance technology devices from the West and the East have become essential tools for seeing through a coup d’état in the digital age.

A new chapter is being added to the history of political revolutions. There was a time when anyone plotting a coup against a government had to capture the main telephone exchange and the radio transmitter stations. Later it became TV towers and television studios.

But, if you think that this is a story about the enabling, democratizing power of the Internet to organize protests against an oppressive military regime, you might want to think again.

Generals weaponizing the Internet

True, the street protests were, in part, organized in this fashion. But unfortunately, the side that is using the power of the Internet to greatest effect in the deadly political cat and mouse games that are playing out in Myanmar since the February 1, 2021 coup d’état are the country’s generals.