Fourth Year Under Myanmar Military’s Digital Iron Curtain: A Reflection on Digital Repression and the Path Forward

Digital crackdown has never been tighter in Myanmar. Since the coup in February 2021, Myanmar's military regime has waged an unrelenting digital war on its people. Now in its fourth year of power, the junta continues to tighten its digital iron curtain, suppressing rights both online and off through internet shutdowns, advanced surveillance, and censorship. More than 6,200 people have been killed, and 28,370 arrested, with at least 1,840 detained for online expression alone — often for something as simple as a Facebook post or using a virtual private network (VPN). With near total control over the country’s telecom sector, the junta has proved itself to be one of the world’s worst abusers of digital repression, hunting down critics and opposition voices, and turning Myanmar into a surveillance state.

On the first day of 2025, the military enacted the controversial Cybersecurity Law, granting itself further power to block websites and monitor, censor, and punish online expression — a clear signal that the regime intends to continue intensifying its digital oppression. Yet, the sudden passage of the legislation that had been dormant for the last two years reveals the military’s desperation: a failing regime clinging to control, fearing the growing resistance movement that refuses to be silenced and has, over the last 12 months, shrunk the military’s control to just about 21 % of the country.

In 2024, the junta escalated its digital attacks with foreign-backed technology, committing grave violations of human rights. It deployed an advanced firewall system at the nation's internet gateways, blocking VPNs and encrypted messaging apps like Signal. With nearly all VPN services blocked in the country, people can no longer bypass the junta’s censorial regime, and access banned social media platforms like Facebook and X, creating an unprecedented crisis of limited connectivity impacting millions. Meanwhile, the regime advanced its e-ID project and digitally linked the national census, enhancing its ability to track, monitor, and identify citizens.

Cross-border support is enabling the junta’s digital war

The military’s recent escalations in cyber repression have only been made possible with the help of foreign technology. In 2024, China and India deepened their support for Myanmar’s junta, adding to capabilities initially established via Western technologies that found their way into the military’s hands from transactions happening before and after the coup. This technological support across international borders lies at the foundation of a festering surveillance state.

China’s role: building Myanmar’s firewall and surveillance state

A major escalation involved installing an advanced firewall system on the nation's internet gateways, blocking people’s access to secure communication through VPNs and encrypted messaging apps. Companies from the People’s Republic of China, particularly Geedge Networks (Jizhi (Hainna) Information Technology Company Limited), played a key role in deploying the military’s internet gateway firewall systems, modeled after China’s infamous Great Firewall.

Further, in October 2024, China reportedly provided technical support to Myanmar’s military in conducting a national census. This census was not about governance — it was a military intelligence operation that identified and tracked dissidents. Many activists were arrested in Yangon during the data collection period, raising concerns that census data was used for targeted crackdowns.

India’s role: supporting the e-ID system and mass profiling

Since the coup, Myanmar’s military has pushed ahead with the e-ID project, an expansive digital identification system, without proper privacy safeguards. In July 2024, India’s Aadhaar system technical teams appeared to have provided expertise and biometric data-collecting tools developed by Indian technology firms. This also allegedly included systems for managing the regime’s large e-ID database holding personal information collected from over 52 million residents and 16 million household registrations, and the biometric data — like facial scans, iris scans, and fingerprints — of many coerced into registering.

Although enrolment in the e-ID is optional on paper, it has become mandatory in practice due to its ubiquitous need. In early 2024, following a surge in passport applications from young people trying to flee military conscription law, the junta made e-ID a requirement for obtaining passport and border passes.

The project has also been weaponized against thousands of civil servants who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Nearly 300,000 individuals who refused to return to their posts have been hit with arrest warrants, with their names flagged in the junta’s database. Many have tried to flee the country using false identities, but with the system now cross-referencing biometric data across passports, SIM cards, and financial records, escape has become nearly impossible.

It is a cruel irony that the CDM — a movement inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s anti-colonial struggle in India — is now being crushed by technology with origins in India.

Internet shutdowns: a tool of oppression

Internet shutdowns have been one of the military’s primary tools of oppression. Between 2021 and 2024, the military ordered at least 459 internet shutdowns, affecting over 200 of Myanmar’s 330 townships and earning the junta the infamy of being one of the biggest shutdown offenders across the globe. The worst-hit areas — Chin, Sagaing, Rakhine, and Karenni — have faced prolonged blackouts, leaving communities cut off from communication for years. Access Now and #KeepItOn coalition’s recent report makes it evident that the junta, once again, was among the world’s top internet shutdown abusers in 2024, and imposed over 85 instances of shutdowns impacting multiple townships at once.

Beyond blocking information about human rights abuses and its repression, the junta employs internet blackouts to conceal military operations targeting civilians. The military frequently cuts communication before launching airstrikes, preventing civilians from reporting attacks or seeking help. According to the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP), the military has carried out more than 8000 airstrikes in the last four years until mid-January 2025, killing at least 1,980 civilians. In 2024, at least 17 shutdowns imposed by the junta were correlated with airstrikes on villages with civilians.

Myanmar’s ongoing national conflict has also contributed to a worsening connectivity crisis. Widespread electricity shortages, destruction of cell towers, and fuel supply disruptions have plunged over a third of the country into persistent internet blackouts, affecting education, business, and emergency communication.

A Defining Moment for Myanmar’s Future

While Myanmar’s military still holds power in major cities, its territorial control is at its lowest since the coup. Resistance forces have made significant gains, but the junta continues to rely on airstrikes and foreign backing to maintain its rule. And while the junta seeks to fasten their digital iron curtain where they still have control, 2024 saw resistance groups and local initiatives make significant progress in finding alternative ways to access the internet — though this was hampered by the high cost, technological barriers of alternative communication tools and the dramatic closing down of international aid and funding that enables such efforts.

To tear down the military’s digital iron curtain, the international community, including governments, the private sector, and civil society organizations, must go beyond words — it must take decisive action:

• Cut off military-controlled telecom networks: In January 2024, the US Department of Commerce sanctioned Mytel, a military-owned telecom provider. However, more is needed: other governments, including the UK, Canada, and the EU, need to follow suit and work alongside the US Treasury to pressure Mytel’s parent company, Viettel (Vietnam’s military-run telecom firm), to stop pumping in resources. Meanwhile, Shwe Byain Phyu Group, which controls Atom, has been sanctioned. Yet, Atom remains unpenalized and operational. Governments must ensure sanctions directly target Atom and other military-linked telecom firms such as Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).
• Halt technology transfers: Firms from China, India, and the West must be blocked from supplying surveillance tools, biometric systems, and censorship technology that enables repression. In October 2024, Canada, the EU, and the UK imposed new sanctions on companies providing surveillance technology to the junta — more needs to be done and other countries must do the same.
• Support and invest in tech infrastructure to speed up efforts and services for alternative communication networks: Develop a comprehensive action plan that addresses both the short-term need for emergency connectivity and the long-term need for secure and reliable connectivity, including efforts by governments and tech actors to support tools to bypass censorship with satellite-based services, pushing for readily available VPN services, and improved in-built circumvention features on platforms such as Facebook and Signal for users in Myanmar.

This is a defining moment. In 2025, Myanmar has a real chance to overcome the military dictatorship — but it will not happen unless the world stands firmly on the side of the people, and does not enable their oppressors. This is not just about Myanmar’s fight for freedom. It is about resisting the global rise of digital authoritarianism and ensuring that technology is used to empower people, not control them.