In the early hours of Feb. 1, Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup that has ignited months of mass protests. The military junta’s security forces have since killed more than 550 civilians in crackdowns on the pro-democracy protesters, including children.
Protesters in Myanmar, who asked to stay anonymous, told Reuters they were terrified about being shut off from the world, with no way to broadcast news of the protests or of the army’s killings to those outside of Myanmar. Since the coup, the junta has ordered telecom companies to carry out dozens of shutdowns. These shutdowns targeted mobile and wireless internet, which is the only available internet for most in the country.Before the current internet blackout, Myanmar’s junta continually added severe restrictions on how people could use it.
Additionally, Myanmar’s junta has ordered internet providers in at least one city, Bago, to share the identities of fixed broadband subscribers, according to two sources and an official government order reviewed by Reuters. Residents in the city of Kalay said on April 5 that the fixed fiber internet was not working.Note: Data as of April 5. Public Wi-Fi has been largely shut off and described as “limited” since March 18.
Virtual private networks, or VPNs, create a private tunnel between a device and the internet. Any information – such as what websites someone is browsing or what files are being uploaded – is encrypted by the VPN and becomes unreadable to others along the information path. That means internet service providers can’t tell if you are trying to visit a blocked website and will likely let the information through.
andreajanuta MinamiFunakoshi Restricting internet access and controlling information? Reminds me of America!