Equating Burmese identity with 20 VPN applications is, of course, said in jest, but the real-world number is still high. Digital rights activists estimate that Myanmar citizens have an average of 5 VPN applications installed on their phones.
CRACKDOWN ON VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS
Between late May and early June this year, experts and cyber analysts started to observe that the SAC has been actively blocking access to VPNs. At the end of May, the Transport and Communications Ministry ordered a nationwide ban on access to Facebook, Instagram, X, WhatsApp and VPN services, according to news reports from Voice of America (VOA).
This crackdown is one of the extrajudicial executions of the Cybersecurity Law drafted in 2022 by the junta, which was never fully enacted. On the ground, the security forces have been randomly checking, searching and even arresting people for having VPNs on their phones.
However, despite the physical harassment and the blatant violation of people’s freedom of speech and opinion, and right to information, it is hard to imagine that the junta’s attempt to ban VPN services will stop people from utilising the tool to stay connected online.
Indeed, the VPN ban will likely push people, desperately seeking information or social connection, toward alternatives even from obscured sources which would expose them to even more cyber threats. Local experts shared anonymously with this author that they have detected a spike in phishing links being advertised as links for various new and free VPN services.
