A leading human rights group has demanded Myanmar’s military junta scrap a draconian cybersecurity bill as it would pave the way for the junta to curb free expression and access to information.
New-York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the cybersecurity law was initially proposed a week after the coup last February. The current draft includes new provisions that would ban the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), abolish the need for certain evidential proof at trial, and require online service providers to block or remove criticism of junta leaders.
The current draft would allow the junta to access user data, block websites, order internet shutdowns and prosecute critics and representatives of non-complying companies.
“Myanmar’s military junta has taken a terrible draft of the cybersecurity law and made it even worse,” Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal adviser at HRW, said in a Feb. 15 statement.
“The junta should scrap this bill, which would further devastate free expression and access to information across the country.”
The draft law would apply to all those providing digital platform services, defined to include any over-the-top service that can provide the service to express data, information, images, voices, texts and video online by using cyber resources and similar systems or materials, according to the rights group.
The proposed cybersecurity law would consolidate the junta’s ability to conduct pervasive censorship and surveillance and hamper the operation of businesses in Myanmar
It said the law applies not only to social media and other content-sharing platforms but also to digital marketplaces, search engines, financial services, data processing services and communications services providing messaging or video calls and games.
Furthermore, the use of VPNs to browse the internet would be a criminal offense without specific permission from an as-yet-unspecified ministry authorized to deal with cybersecurity. Use of an unauthorized VPN would be punishable by up to three years in prison.
People in Myanmar have resorted to using VPNs to access Facebook and Twitter to search for news as many have struggled to get online since the military putsch last year. The junta also frequently shuts down the internet and blocks social media platforms.
Myanmar went without internet access for 72 consecutive days from February to April 2021, driving demand for VPNs up by 7,200 percent, according to Top10VPN.
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HRW said that since any criticism of the coup or the military could be deemed as intending to cause loss of trust in the junta or social division, the junta could use these provisions as sweeping censorship tools.
“The proposed cybersecurity law would consolidate the junta’s ability to conduct pervasive censorship and surveillance and hamper the operation of businesses in Myanmar,” Lakhdhir said.
Ten international chambers of commerce in Myanmar said in a joint statement on Jan. 28 that the proposed law “disrupts the free flow of information and directly impacts businesses’ abilities to operate legally and effectively in Myanmar.”
Myanmar was ranked 17 for internet freedom in 2021 on a scale in which 100 is most free, according to a Freedom House report released last September.
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