Myanmar Cannot Wait: Only Coordinated Global Pushback Will Stop Escalating Violence and Repression

Dhevy Sivaprakasam is Senior Policy Counsel, Golda Benjamin is Asia-Pacific Campaigner, Wai Phyo Myint is Asia Pacific Policy Analyst, and Alexia Skok is Communications and Media Manager at Access Now. Nyaunghswe, Myanmar – 17 Feb 2021: Myanmar people took to the streets to protest against the military coup. Shutterstock/R. Bociaga This Sunday, August 20, it will be two years since curfew-style internet shutdowns across Myanmar’s Hpakant township disconnected the world from the ongoing devastation inflicted by the military. Heinous reports of targeted airstrikes, widespread arson, ill-treatment, and killings continue to trickle out from the township — and many others across the country — hampered by connectivity blockages. Over 50 million people in Myanmar are now halfway through a third harrowing year of repression. Yet, as the crisis slides out of news cycles, there is no decisive pushback from the international community on the horizon. Control of information allows for control of people. The military’s coup is also digital — and the online takeover is very nearly complete. Governments cannot continue to simply sit idle as the Myanmar military terrorizes a nation with impunity through the abuse of surveillance tools and internet shutdowns to perpetrate atrocities. They must commit to and coordinate effective measures to ban the sale of surveillance technologies and assistance to the military, and provide alternative means for internet access to combat the devastating impacts of shutdowns and targeted blockings.  Abuse of surveillance technologies In a desperate bid to seek international legitimacy, the junta seems determined to impose…Myanmar Cannot Wait: Only Coordinated Global Pushback Will Stop Escalating Violence and Repression