Myanmar’s military rulers enact cybersecurity law with wide-ranging censorship provisions

BANGKOK (AP) —

Military-ruled Myanmar, already notorious for cracking down on free speech, has enacted a new cybersecurity law with wide-ranging controls on the flow of information, according to a text of the measure published Friday in state-run newspapers.

Existing restrictions on freedom of expression under the ruling military have generally involved charges under broadly defined national security laws concerning online content.

There have also been actions to block websites and apps at the network level, keeping end-users from accessing content the army doesn’t want them to see. Technology from China and Russia, the ruling military’s top allies, is used for monitoring and censorship purposes.

The new law, which came into effect on Wednesday, has extensive provisions mainly targeting means of communications and providers of services such as virtual private networks — VPNs — that can help evade network blockages. VPNs connect users to their desired sites through third-party computers, effectively masking from internet service providers and snooping governments what content they are accessing.

Many otherAsiannations also have cybersecurity laws with restrictive aspects that free speech advocates charge are meant to silence dissenting voices.

The military government that took power in Myanmar in February 2021 after ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi has made several previous attempts to throttle traffic on the internet, especially in the months immediately after their takeover.

Resistance to the takeover relied heavily on social media, especially Facebook, to organize street protests.

As nonviolent resistance escalated into armed struggle and other independent media were shut down or forced underground, there