Myanmar

Overview

Burma, also known as Myanmar, has progressed from an “enemy of the Internet” to a state that shows signs of slowly embracing it. Under a military dictatorship for decades, Burma shut down Internet access for about two weeks in 2007 in response to pro-democracy protests during its “Saffron Revolution,” one of the first-ever cases of temporary Internet blackouts as an anti-protest tool. Elections in 2010 were deemed flawed but brought former general Thein Sein and a nominally civilian government to power. The country has since unblocked a number of both domestic and foreign websites and released people imprisoned for their Internet activities. The lack of concrete legal reforms, however, means that these recent positive steps are not a guarantee of continued progress. Internet penetration remains very low at two percent, though the government seeks to expand Internet access. In 2013, Burma hosted the inaugural World Economic Forum on South East Asia and its first Internet Freedom Forum. The country also welcomed a Burmese version of Google and SQUAR, the first Burmese-language social network site.

Access

Less than two percent of Burmese use the Internet, and only 0.01 percent have fixed broadband subscriptions. Home Internet access is extremely expensive, so most Internet users log on from cybercafés. Owners are required to monitor cybercafé activity by collecting each customer’s name, address, and identification number; arranging the computers so all screens are publicly visible; taking screenshots every five minutes; and sending usage records to the Myanmar Information Communications Technology Development Corporation. Customers are prohibited from using external drives such as CDs, USB sticks, or floppy disks. Internet speeds are also extremely slow; Freedom House reports that at one point in 2011-2012, a user in a small town might find a single website could take between 45 and 90 minutes to load. While that slowdown resulted from a fiber-optic cable disruption, the government has intentionally slowed and even shut off the Internet during times of unrest. As pro-democracy protests spread through the country in September 2007, the government shut down Internet access for about two weeks. Since 2010, Burma has had only three ISPs, each of which serves a different sector: the defense ministry, other government ministries, and private civilian users. This system reduces load on the country’s Internet gateway but also makes it easier to limit access and/or monitor only civilians.

Control

Despite a history of extensive censorship and blocking, Burma’s government has loosened online content restrictions in recent years. In September 2011, YouTube and international and Burmese news sites including the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, the Democratic Voice of Burma, and the Irrawaddy magazine became available online after years of being blocked. The government blocked Skype in 2008 but restored access in 2012. While the move suggests a step toward greater freedom of expression online, Freedom House writes that, “harsh media laws remain in effect and could be used at any time to punish a wide range of online expression, the [country’s] technical censorship system appears intact, and some opposition blogs continue to be blocked.” Shawn Crispin, who focuses on Southeast Asia for the Committee to Protect Journalists, told the Associated Press, “These sites may now be available in Burma, but Internet users risk arrest and even prison for accessing them.”

Activity

In 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists deemed Burma the world’s worst place to be a blogger. An Electronic Transaction Law enables the government to impose fines and prison sentences between 7 and 15 years on Internet users who send, receive, or distribute information against “state security, law and order, community peace and tranquility, national solidarity, the national economy, or national culture,” including information posted on Facebook. In 2012, the government released several prisoners sentenced under the law, but it did not overturn their convictions or reform the law, leaving open the possibility for oppressive censorship in the future. Still, Burma’s netizen community is expanding. Blogger Nay Phone Lat founded the Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO), which hosted the country’s first Internet Freedom Forum in June 2013. Since 2010, Burma has hosted a user-generated unconference called BarCamp that is the largest event of its kind in the world. In March 2013, Google launched a Burmese version of its search engine; in July, a local company named SQUAR launched the first Burmese-language social networking site. Facebook is popular in Burma, though the government has said that half of the country’s 800,000 accounts employ fake names.