Digital Tyranny

The illegal military junta in Myanmar has escalated its digital tyranny, weaponizing surveillance technologies to track, silence, and punish civilians ruthlessly. Its so-called Cyber Security “Law” is a façade for digital authoritarianism. This tool grants junta leaders sweeping power to seize, control, and retain personal data—names, phone numbers, IP addresses, browsing logs—systematically violating digital rights and freedoms. 

Forced biometric registrations, invasive tracking of social media activity, and intrusive digital spying now penetrate every corner of daily life—homes, phones, and private conversations. These  are not merely privacy violations; they are deliberate tactics to terrorize people across Myanmar, silence democratic voices, and crush any resistance—enabling and emboldening the junta to commit further atrocities. The international community—especially junta backers China and Russia—must cut all support enabling the junta’s digital repression and surveillance against the civilians—immdiately and unconditionally.

Since early 2025, the junta’s Person Scrutinization and Monitoring System (PSMS), a combination of facial recognition, AI, and digital IDs to identify and detain civilians, has been weaponized to arrest over 1,600 civilians in just 10 weeks—a shocking statistic that underscores a systematic campaign of digital tyranny. On 2 July 2025, junta soldiers arrested a 29-year-old woman at a Kalaw Township checkpoint after scanning her ID via the PSMS, despite her possessing all necessary documents and a travel recommendation letter issued by her ward administration. Junta soldiers accused her of financing resistance forces and detained her arbitrarily at a Htauk Kyant police station. Similarly, in May, the junta detained a university student from Namsang Township on the way to Taunggyi after scanning and flagging her National Registration Card (NRC) under Section 50-N. Just days earlier, the junta arrested a 25-year-old from Yangon’s Dagon South (New Town) at a checkpoint in Kye Thi Township after being flagged by the PSMS system. These arrests are not isolated incidents. They reveal a chilly new reality in Shan State and across Myanmar, where digital surveillance at military checkpoints targets anyone perceived to be a threat to the junta. The PSMS is no benign tool—it is a core part of the junta’s ruthless crackdown on civil liberties and resistance.

Beyond the PSMS, the military junta is building a draconian National Database that integrates biometric data from the NRC, SIM registration, smart cards, census records, as well as information siphoned from hotels through the Guest List Management System (GLMS), airports via the Myanmar Advanced Passenger Processing System (MAPPS), and conscription databases like the National Service Information Management System (NSIMS). These systems are key components of a centralized digital surveillance database built explicitly for control over Myanmar people’s data. 

In a Facebook-dominant Myanmar, the military junta has aggressively blocked, censored, and surveilled online spaces, such as closely monitoring the dissenting opinions on posts, shares, and comments. The junta has arrested at least four people for posting simple birthday messages to detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, punishing peaceful expression under fabricated grounds of political incitement. A man from Mon State livestreamed criticisms of junta forces for accepting bribes to let unlicensed vehicles into the state, only to later arrest the owners and seize their property. He was later arrested and charged with “defaming the state.” The junta’s repressive legal tools now criminalize online speech and weaponize surveillance to silence any criticism and bury its corruption in the shadows. 

These repressive actions are not only initiated by the junta itself, but also backed and intensified by its partners in crime. Under the lens of China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI), Beijing has provided the junta with advanced surveillance tools and AI-driven CCTV networks disguised as “national security” measures. Russia arms the junta with facial recognition software that targets members of the Civil Disobedience Movement and those wanted under Section 505 of the Penal Code. Both are helping the junta turn technology into a blatant tool of political repression. 

Myanmar’s digital space is no longer simply monitored—it is being weaponized to advance the junta’s war of terror against the people and to annihilate the democratic resistance movement. In the words of a digital rights monitor, “This is part of a broader strategy to instill fear, limit mobility, and suppress opposition voices. It’s not just about security, it’s about control.”

China and Russia must stop all aiding and abetting the junta’s terror campaign against the Myanmar people. They must immediately halt any support that fuels the junta’s digital surveillance to silence and control the people of Myanmar, as well as all transfers of technology, tools, and training that empower and embolden its brutality. The international community at large must step up and take decisive targeted sanctions on sales and transfers of dual-use goods and impose technology embargoes. Myanmar’s peoples deserve to live in freedom, dignity, and security—not where every byte of their lives is monitored and weaponized by the murderous junta.

_______________________

[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’ in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.

Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10, 2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for Progressive Voice.”