Myanmar's Military Junta To Monitor Internet Users

Myanmar’s Military Junta is preparing a cybersecurity law that will allow it to disrupt the Internet, ban content on the web, and request user data.

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If that law is enacted, Internet providers must keep information related to users and their IP, telephone number, address, and data usage for three years.

If that data is not released to the military upon request, Internet providers would face up to three years in jail and fines of USD7,100.

"If the military regime's illegal action is not firmly denounced in time, oppression in the country will last a long time," said 160 social organizations that issued a statement denouncing the violation of human rights and digital rights.

For the sixth day in a row, citizens staged protests across the country against the military that overthrew the government led by Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1. During the coup and in the days after, the military restricted the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter. They also impeded the spread of information when massive street protests erupted across the country and abroad.

On Thursday, citizens sought to avoid conflicts with the police through small-group protests held in various places in the country's main cities.

Ethnic groups, factory workers, banking personnel, engineers, lawyers, and even public officials organized marches against the dictatorship and demanding the release of Suu Kyi and the other detainees.

In the early hours of Thursday, however, the military carried out a new wave of arrests against people linked to the previous government, the National League for Democracy (LND), and the Electoral Commission. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) reported that 220 people are still in detention.

On Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council will hold a special session to address the situation in Myanmar, a country whose Military Junta is led by General Min Aung Hlaing.