Internet ‘Whitelist’ Highlights Myanmar Military’s Wishful Economic Thinking

THE I DIPLOMAT

Sebastian Strangio
May 26, 2021

Facebook and Twitter are out. A suite of business applications and messaging services are in.

Myanmar’s military junta has drawn up a list of more than 1,200 online services and domain names to which it plans to grant the public access under its embryonic system of internet controls. A copy of this “whitelist,” which was given recently to local internet service providers and telecoms companies, was obtained by Nikkei Asia and published yesterday.

Since seizing power on February 1, Myanmar’s military has drastically tightened its controls over the internet in a bid to quash the rising protests against its coup. It has ordered the blocking of websites and the virtual private networks that are used to circumvent such blocks. It has also instituted nightly internet blackouts and cut off mobile data.

Bangladesh to lift Rohingya internet ban as anniversary nears

The Dispetch
Thomson Reuters Foundation
August 29, 2020
By Naimul Karim

DHAKA: Bangladesh will lift internet restrictions imposed on nearly a million Rohingya refugees, a senior official said on Monday, ahead of the third anniversary of their exodus from Myanmar.

The Bangladesh government has been under pressure from the United Nations and aid groups to end the restrictions over fears they are hampering efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus and provide a basic education to thousands of children.

Lift internet blackout, protect freedom of expression

UNB
UNB NEWS
July 30, 2020,

Fortify Rights on Friday said Myanmar authorities should immediately release Myat Hein Tun and Kyaw Lin, two student leaders of the Rakhine Students’ Union imprisoned for protesting internet restrictions in Rakhine and Chin states. Photo: Collected

Fortify Rights on Friday said Myanmar authorities should immediately release Myat Hein Tun and Kyaw Lin, two student leaders of the Rakhine Students’ Union imprisoned for protesting internet restrictions in Rakhine and Chin states.

Myanmar reimposes internet shutdown in conflict-torn Rakhine, Chin states: telco operator

bdnews24.com
Reuters
04 Feb 2020

FILE PHOTO: A landscape view of the downtown with ancient pagodas in the background in Mrauk U, Rakhine state, Myanmar Jun 28, 2019. REUTERS/Ann Wang

Myanmar has reimposed an internet shutdown in two conflict-torn western states, after partially lifting the blackout five months ago, a leading telecoms operator said late on Monday.

 

Norwegian mobile operator Telenor Group said in a statement the transport and communications ministry had ordered for mobile internet traffic to be stopped again in five townships in Rakhine and Chin states for three months.

Clampdown on Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch calls for end to restrictions on movement, Internet

The Milli Gazette Online
Published Online: Sep 08, 2019

New York: The Bangladesh government should end restrictions on Rohingya refugees’ freedom of movement and access to the internet and online communications, Human Rights Watch said today. Government restrictions have intensified following a failed attempt to repatriate refugees to Myanmar, a large rally by Rohingya refugees, and the killings of a local politician and four refugees.

“Bangladesh authorities have a major challenge in dealing with such a large number of refugees, but they have made matters worse by imposing restrictions on refugee communications and freedom of movement,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should take a level-headed approach instead of overreacting to tensions and protests by isolating Rohingya refugees in camps.”

ရခိုင်နဲ့ ချင်း Internet ပြန်ဖွင့်ပေးဖို့ ကန် တောင်းဆို

VOA
ဗွီအိုအေ (မြန်မာပိုင်း)
30 ဇွန်၊ 2019

 ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ် မြောက်ဦးမြို့ရှိ ရှေးဟောင်းစေတီပုထိုးများ (နိုဝင်ဘာ၊ ၀၈၊ ၂၀၁၂)

တိုက်ပွဲတွေ ဖြစ်နေတဲ့ ရခိုင်နဲ့ ချင်းပြည်နယ်တွင်းက ဒေသတွေမှာ မြန်မာ အစိုးရဘက်က အင်တာနက်ဖြတ်တောက်ထားတာကို အမြန်ဆုံး ပြန်ပြီး ဖွင့်ပေးဖို့ အမေရိကန်က စနေနေ့မှာ တိုက်တွန်းလိုက်ပါတယ်။

Myanmar crackdown: Lessons from recent history

THE ASEAN POST
Sheith Khidhir

29 June 2019 

In this file photo taken on 27 March, 2019, Myanmar's soldiers march in a formation during a parade to mark the country's 74th Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw. (AFP Photo)

On 21 June, the government of Myanmar ordered mobile phone operators in the country to shut down all Internet data across at least eight townships in Rakhine and one in neighbouring Chin state. United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur to Myanmar, Yanghee Lee expressed serious concern regarding the blackout, saying that it could be cover for "gross human rights violations" in an area where a brutal army crackdown has already forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee.

The military is locked in a battle with the Arakan Army (AA), insurgents fighting for more autonomy for the region's ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.

Lawmakers Submit Urgent Proposal to Resume Internet Services in N. Rakhine

The Irrawaddy

By Min Aung Khine 

25 June 2019

The session of Rakhine state parliament in Sittwe, Rakhine State on June 24, 2019. / Min Aung Khine / The Irrawaddy

SITTWE—An urgent proposal regarding the shutdown of internet services in eight townships in Rakhine State was submitted to the state parliament on Monday.

Lawmaker U Hla Thein Aung of Minbya Township submitted the proposal urging the Union government to resume internet services in eight Rakhine townships where the Tatmadaw (or Myanmar Army) and the Arakan Army are fighting.

Myanmar: UN expert 'fears for civilians' after Internet shutdown

UNITE NATIONS
HUMAN RIGHTS 
24 JUNE 2019

GENEVA (24 June 2019) - The Myanmar Government’s shutdown of mobile data networks in nine townships could have serious implications for human rights and humanitarian monitoring in the conflict areas of Rakhine and Chin States, a UN expert warned on Monday.

“As there is no media access and serious restrictions on humanitarian organisations in the conflict-affected area, the entire region is in a blackout,” said Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. “I fear for all civilians there, cut off and without the necessary means to communicate with people inside and outside the area.”

No Internet in Western Myanmar until Security Situation Eases: MPT Official

The Irrawaddy
 By Htet Naing Zaw
24 June 2019

NAYPYITAW—Internet services will resume in western Myanmar when stability is restored in the area, said the chief engineer of Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).

Out of concerns for security and the public interest, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, with the approval of the Union government, ordered telecom companies to shut down internet services in eight townships in Rakhine State and Chin State’s Paletwa Township under Section 77 of Telecommunications Law, MPT chief engineer U Myo Swe told The Irrawaddy. The Ministry of Transport and Communications oversees the MPT.