Photo retrieved from: Access Now
Since the 2021 coup, the Burmese military regime has systematically weaponized a multi-faceted digital repression strategy, such as internet shutdowns, surveillance, disinformation, and control of telecommunications, etc, to shrink civic space, control public discourse, and suppress dissent. Legislation also undermines the ability of universities, researchers, academics, journalists, and activists to defend academic freedom and advocate for human rights and peace, in order to consolidate power and enable grave human rights violations. This symbolizes that digital authoritarianism infringes upon individual human rights of the general populace, such as the right to information, freedom of expression, and privacy, and also undermines the very foundations of peace and democratic governance.
Since the beginning of the coup, the military and its forces, including the Military Security Affairs Corps and Police, have targeted journalists, media agencies, freelance media, and even civilian journalists when formal and official channels were not available, as most media had their licences revoked, in a ban that affects print, broadcast, and digital platforms. These measures return to the country’s darkest days of censorship, self-censorship, and state-sponsored disinformation. They unjustifiably threatened, arrested, tortured, detained, and charged those victims under amended Section 505A of the Penal Code which provision to criminalize those who cause or intend to cause fear, spread false news, agitate directly or indirectly criminal offence against a Government employee, for exercising their human rights under the pretext of defamation of the regime and inciting the public to violence. Some are issued with warrants and hide with limited access to basic needs while they are working their jobs under dangerous circumstances. “Journalists are at the frontline of the struggle to expose the truth on what is happening in Myanmar today, and the arrest of Danny Fenster (an American journalist, an editor of Frontier Myanmar) is a reminder of how the media in Myanmar has been targeted for trying to expose the human rights violations committed by the military.” said Emerlynne Gil, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Research.
The #KeepItOn campaign reported that the military imposed 85 shutdowns across the country, reflecting the unprecedented scale at which shutdowns have been deployed since the outbreak of civil war in 2021, ranking the highest country where people experienced conflict-related internet shutdowns in 2024. As digital curfew is an unyielding threat to human rights and human life nowadays, brutal abuses and violence, consisting of murder, torture, rape, atrocities, war crimes, and genocide, etc, perpetrated by the authorities can be covered up and sow fear and uncertainty, and cut off access to life-saving information. The junta killed unarmed civilians, protesters, and parliament members of the former government, opposition party members, etc, in various patterns comprising airstrikes and artillery strikes on villages, hospitals, and schools, with a documented number of 7286 individuals during the span of over 4 years, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, and blockaded cities from receiving humanitarian aid.
The aforementioned actions are a clear sign of this regime’s persecution, intimidation, and harassment against not only media workers but also artists, influencers, doctors, teachers, and other civil servants who join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) intended to suppress peaceful dissent by tracking them mostly on social media platforms with state-own internet service providers, social media platform block, containing Facebook, Instagram, X (former Twitter), etc, and ban of Virtual Private Networks. The effectiveness of the judiciary is questionable with the amendment and enforcement of laws related to information and communication, to systematically dismantle academic freedom and prosecute human rights advocates. Following the coup, the military regime amended the Electronic Transactions Law to grant expansive powers to access personal data and prosecute online speech, with these provisions later integrated into the more restrictive Cybersecurity Law (2025), aiming to regulate various aspects of digital security and online activities.
As human rights and peace education are essential for digital resilience against the military junta’s digital authoritarianism, education must focus on building the capacity of citizens, especially youth, to employ digital security tools and digital literacy to counter state-sponsored misinformation and propaganda to reclaim technology for democratic and peaceful purposes. The student-led parallel education institutions, such as Spring University Myanmar and Burma Academy, have adapted pedagogical models to offer Human Rights and Federalism Studies through secure online platforms, low-bandwidth solutions like the “SUM box,” and radio lectures to bypass regime censorship and internet blackouts. Furthermore, universities, researchers, and educators who joined the CDM are defending civic space by engaging in Research-as-Resistance, documenting digital and physical human rights violations for future accountability mechanisms, and advocating internationally for academic freedom as a necessary foundation for a future federal democracy.
The polycrisis in the country has dramatically dragged down the commitments and implementation of the previous government’s scheme of the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan (2018-2030). It also deeply threatens and undermines the targets of Quality Education within the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, in terms of exclusion of human rights, peace and non-violence discourses in educational curricula of 4.7. In addition, SDG 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, is at risk due to violations of fundamental freedoms of expression, opinion, and access to information, particularly 16.10 and state-controlled surveillance and digital control are diminishing transparency and accountability in 16.6. The role of academic institutions and scholars have been intentionally framed as subversive and civilian unrest to uphold academic freedom and promote human rights. Moreover, civil and political rights are denied under the pretense of national security threats by the regime’s governance.
The collective regional and international actions are urgently needed to uphold human rights and restore democratic peace in Myanmar for the military regime’s systematic digital repression, weaponized legislation, and targeted persecution of journalists and academics. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must move beyond condemnatory statements to implement robust and coordinated mechanisms to impose accountability on the regime for its digital and physical atrocities and war crimes.
Written by: Shu Ma Wa
Referecences:
Access Now. (2025, February 24). Emboldened offenders, endangered communities: internet shutdowns in 2024. https://www.accessnow.org/internet-shutdowns-2024/
Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup https://aappb.org/?p=34368
Myanmar’s new Electronic Transactions Law Amendment https://freeexpressionmyanmar.org/myanmars-new-electronic-transactions-law-amendment/
Myanmar Cybersecurity Law 2025 https://www.southasia-law.com/news/newsdetail?news_id=50
EngageMedia. (2023). The Digital Landscape of Activism in Myanmar. https://engagemedia.org/2023/youth-myanmar/
Spring University Myanmar https://www.springuniversitymm.com/
Burma Academy https://burma.ac/
Lall, M., Mann, M. A., & Proserpio, L. (2025). Emerging from adversity: Spring Universities in post-coup Myanmar. Education and Conflict Review, 5, 89–96. https://doi.org/10.14324/000.ch.10207908
Asia Matters for America. (2022). Student Advocates in Myanmar Defy the Military through an Innovative Education Platform. https://asiamattersforamerica.org/articles/student-advocates-in-myanmar-defy-the-military-through-an-innovative-education-platform
Inya Economics. (2024). TRANSNATIONAL DIGITAL SURVEILLANCE: DIGITAL RIGHTS AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN MYANMAR POST-COUP. https://www.inyaeconomics.org/blogs/transnational-digital-surveillance-digital-rights-and-academic-freedom-in-myanmar-post-coup/
Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan (2018 – 2030)
https://themimu.info/sites/themimu.info/files/documents/Core_Doc_Myanmar_Sustainable_Development_Plan_2018_-_2030_Aug2018.pdf
Sustainable Development Goal 4 https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4
Sustainable Development Goal 16 https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal16