The Myanmar junta has passed its repressive Cybersecurity Law in a further attempt to suppress dissidents and curb the flow of information amid growing resistance across the country.
The junta’s state-run newspapers announced the enforcement of the law, which the regime began preparing a few weeks after the coup in 2021 and has drawn widespread criticism from rights groups since then.
The law’s wide-ranging provisions criminalize the use of virtual private networks (VPNs); penalize users who access banned sites or share information from them; and grant the regime unlimited power to access user data, arrest online critics and conduct online surveillance. The law also criminalizes online gambling and other banned cyber activities.
Those who violate the law face penalties from fines to imprisonment for between one month and seven years.
Ma Wai Phyo Myint, Asia-Pacific policy analyst at Access Now, which promotes digital rights around the world, said that unlike other countries’ cybersecurity laws designed to protect citizens from cyberattacks and cybercrime, the junta’s law was designed as another tool for oppressing the Myanmar people.
“Moreover, under it, the use of VPNs [without prior permission] will become a criminal act.”
The digital rights advocate said the law violates citizens’ fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, the right to access information and cyber freedoms, while granting the junta legal cover for its suppression.
However, she said the law wouldn’t dramatically alter the current situation on the ground, as the junta has already been arresting and imprisoning citizens for online activity it opposes.
Since the 2021 coup, the junta has consistently targeted online platforms and social media channels by imposing internet shutdowns and blocking access to social media platforms like Facebook, as well as independent news websites. To get around this, internet users have been accessing prohibited sites with the help of VPNs, applications that can bypass such blocks.
In response, junta security officials began conducting random searches for VPNs by inspecting the mobile phones of pedestrians and threatening them with steep fines and even arrest. In May last year, the junta officially announced a ban on the use of VPNs.
According to Data for Myanmar, from February 2022 to October 2024, the junta arrested 1,840 people for criticizing it online, 657 of them women. Last year alone, at least 351 people were arrested for anti-regime posts, comments and shares on social media, with Yangon and Mandalay being the hotspots, the research group said.
“Regardless of its attempts, the junta hasn’t been able to silence the dissent and flow of information and I see the enactment of the law as a proof of that failure,” Ma Wai Phyo Myint said.
