Myanmar's Internet Suppression (reuters.com) 38
In Myanmar, the junta's intensifying crackdowns on protesters in the street are mirrored by its rising restrictions online. Reuters: 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. To try to suppress protests, the junta has imposed increasing restrictions on internet access, culminating in a near total shutdown as of April 2. That has made it extremely difficult for people to access information, upload videos of protests, or organize. These tactics have also crippled businesses and limited access to medical information during the coronavirus pandemic. A Myanmar junta spokesperson did not respond to calls seeking comment. At a March 23 press conference, spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said the junta had no immediate plans to ease internet restrictions because violence was being provoked online.
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. "We Myanmar people are in the dark now," said one young protester. "News from Myanmar is going to disappear," another added. Governments around the world are increasingly using internet restrictions during political crises as a tool to limit free expression and hide human rights abuses, according to data from the digital rights organization Access Now. The U.N. Human Rights Council has condemned such intentional disruptions as a human rights violation. "Whenever the internet is shut down during such critical moments we would hear or document or see reports of human rights abuses, and that is what is happening in Myanmar," said Felicia Anthonio, a campaigner with Access Now. "The government is cracking down on protesters to ensure they do not let the rest of the world know what is happening." 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.
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. "We Myanmar people are in the dark now," said one young protester. "News from Myanmar is going to disappear," another added. Governments around the world are increasingly using internet restrictions during political crises as a tool to limit free expression and hide human rights abuses, according to data from the digital rights organization Access Now. The U.N. Human Rights Council has condemned such intentional disruptions as a human rights violation. "Whenever the internet is shut down during such critical moments we would hear or document or see reports of human rights abuses, and that is what is happening in Myanmar," said Felicia Anthonio, a campaigner with Access Now. "The government is cracking down on protesters to ensure they do not let the rest of the world know what is happening." 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.
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Same end goal, different methods.
Voice an opinion they disagree with and you get cancelled. You will be harassed constantly, your employer and other associates harassed until they disassociate from you etc.
End result is still suppression of dissenting opinions, people suffer consequences if they voice their opinions, and this fear discourages many others from even attempting to voice their opinions.
The military are just taking the most direct and obvious approach, don't like what someone is saying then forc
Re:Ben Shapiro (Score:1)
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Re:Tried giving you points (Score:1)
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You're allowed to say anything you want here in the great US of A, unless you disagree with a Democrat about anything. Then you're deleted.
I can't read what you said. You must have been deleted.
Oh wait I see it now, it says you're full of shit.
Myanmar likely to get worse (Score:4, Insightful)
Today the UN’s special envoy for Myanmar was turned away [scmp.com] by the military junta.
It is obvious that Myanmar's military will bottle up their nation until they can quell the civilian protests. And the West is unlikely to intervene unilaterally, and the UN Security council will never do anything as long as China is ready to veto it.
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And what exactly do you propose the West do? They have only three options: Diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, and military intervention. The first two would achieve absolutely nothing in this situation,and the third would create a whole new set of even worse problems.
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We will be doing all three. the only thing up for discussion is the timing of each phase.
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There are ways to make short wave transmitters from "household objects" (in reality, mostly used car parts). Ask Grandad.
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They need advance preparation. You can't just rig up a long-range radio network that easily. Parts you can improvise, but you need skilled operators as well, and you need a great many of them. Who are willing to spend a lot of time and money setting up and practicing with their equipment in a time when it has no practical use because the internet is faster, cheaper and more reliable. The only community willing to do all that is ham radio,and Myanmar effectively banned ham a long time ago.
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So, how are you planning on distributing the one-time pads to everyone? It's not like delivering large book of information to every radio operator in your network is a trivial undertaking, even if you don't have to take into account one or more of your operators being compromised at some point....
U.S.A. citizens numb from the neck up (Score:4, Interesting)
We're told we fight wars for freedom (remember Bush talking about how the Taliban treated women badly, lolz).
We don't give a shit about freedom or bullshit like "being the world's policeman." If we gave a flying fuck about freedom or policing we'd have vaporized Myanmar's government and North Korea's too.
So we're going to shed tears for these 550 civilians (thousands really)??
Re:U.S.A. citizens numb from the neck up (Score:4, Insightful)
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Oil Reserves in Myanmar: Myanmar holds 50,000,000 barrels of proven oil reserves as of 2016, ranking 76th in the world
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You know that's exactly 2 and a half days worth of USA oil consumption?
They have no oil.
Myanmar: the new Syria (Score:2)
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Old chestnut. (Score:3, Insightful)
Apparently there's some "damage" the internet can't route around.
Starlink (Score:5, Interesting)
A Starlink terminal is the size of a pizza box, and will be smaller in the future. People are hiding bigger stuff than that from the government. In addition itâ(TM)s virtually guaranteed that the kids of the elites will openly have a bunch of them. You canâ(TM)t stop satellite. For example satellite is illegal in Iran yet 50% or more of homes in Iran openly have satellite dishes. Why? Because the elites wanted them and then it became normalized.
Why the heck arenâ(TM)t we funding Starlink and Kuiper as a national security and humanitarian priority?
Elint and Santa knows everything (Score:2)
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You can stop satellite, but the type of jaming you need for that would cause disruption to service outside if the country doing the jamming and thus create some nasty diplomatic consequences. Also Starlink costs $99 a month, and the government can easily block financial transactions to pay for the service, ensuring that satellite service would only be available to people who are both financially well-off and have the right connections to work around the financial restrictions - not the type of people that t
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Also Starlink costs $99 a month, and the government can easily block financial transactions to pay for the service
Didn't you hear? Ol' Musky is all-in on BTC. You'll be able to pay for your starlink connection by using custom ASICs and stolen power.
However, it won't be until a later generation of satellites go up that they won't need base stations, and starlink can actually help people whose internet is being cut off by their government. And even then, it will only be effective against poor-ass governments that can't fly drones around to detect signals.
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Even drones to detect the signal won't be easy .. the signal from the terminal is highly direction .. you would need to blanket a whole country with drones .. no country can afford that.
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You assume kids of the elites or elites themselves don't turn on their authorities .. they do quite a lot actually for a variety of reasons ranging from their own ambitions to guilt.
Live by the sword, die by the sword. (Score:2)
When the Rohingya were being attacked by the Military (genocide mentioned in some circles), Mynmar civilian leadership (Aung San Suu Kyi and company) and the people seem to be supportive of those attacks. They even asked international observers to butt out and refused all offers of assistance.
Now that the military is attacking the civilian leadership and the other demonstrators, they are screaming for international help. Before the Rohingya attacks, international support for Mynmar's civilian leadership was