The Architecture of Digital Repression
The military-dominated telecommunications sector in Myanmar has institutionalized digital repression through internet shutdowns, surveillance, and hacking. A 2025 law allowed the government to block websites and surveil users, similar to information controls in China and Russia.
Citizen Lab senior researcher Irene Poetranto writes for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace about the Myanmar military junta’s employment of internet service provider (ISP) infrastructure to surveil and censor users. Poetranto sheds light on the understudied role of this infrastructure for information controls, examining how networks can be weaponized for state-directed repression.
