Burma blocking the internet
For those of you reading this article you take for granted that I can write this article and you can receive it. However, this isn’t the case in Burma, where I could be imprisoned for up to 15 years for reporting material that the state doesn’t want you to read, and you could get the same for accessing banned material over the internet. If, like many of the people of Burma you want to read the truth you find a way around the draconian censorship laws that pervade every aspect of life. The report by the Open Net Initiative last year highlighted the level of blocking that the SPDC carries out via the 2 Internet Service Providers (ISP) – Myanmar Post & Telecoms and Bagan Cybertech – both of which are either fully or partly run by the SPDC. The 25 page ONI report concludes that Burma operates one of the most restrictive internet censorship regimes in the world (Ref 1). Open Net should know, as they have prepared similar reports on China, Iran, Bahrain, Singapore, Tunisia and the UAE.
Internet Access
Internet access is available to possibly less than 1% of the population of Burma, partly as this is similar level of telephone users and partly due to the high cost relative to annual salary. Broadband is usually only considered by commercial and government offices, costing around US$700 for ADSL to US$2,000 for higher bandwidth offerings. Where the average annual income is $225 per capita, economics plays a key role in preventing access for the mass of the population. Access is strictly controlled as any machine that can access the communication infrastructure electronically (e.g. computers and fax machines) have to be registered with the MPT. Users must sign an agreement to comply with MPT regulations, that can be changed at will with no prior notice.
Regulation
Burma has a bewildering array of censorship laws, from the 1908 Unlawful Associations Act to the 1996 Computer Science Development Law. There are restrictive laws in place to cover any eventuality regarding access to information which the SPDC does not want the people to access. The prototypes for these are laws created by British administration in an attempt to suppress political dialogue by those who wanted to gain independence for Burma; the Official Secrets Act of 1923, which is still in use, broadly prohibits trafficking in any "information which is calculated to be or might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy." Enemies apparently include DASSK, whose website is on the banned list.
Cybercafés are open in major cities, but café owners are obliged to obtain name, identification number and address of users prior to the use of computers. Also, café owners are required to capture screenshots to CD of user screens every 5 minutes for subsequent scrutiny by the state-run Myanmar Information Communications Technology Development Corporation (MICTDC). This snooping into personal privacy would be considered outrageous in most countries around the world, but in fact it is unlikely that MICTDC have the time or resources to view every CD. Such ‘big brother’ watching is likely to inhibit users and give rise to self-censorship.
Firewalls
Firewalls have been used to prevent access to sites which the SPDC don’t want the people to see. These are mostly focussed on political opposition parties, human rights and to a lesser extent pornographic and gambling sites. ONI used various test sites of pro-democracy organisations (Burma Campaign UK, Freeburma, Freeburmacoalition, DASSK), Burma news sites (Irrawaddy, DVB, Asian Tribune) and several Karen sites. Amnesty International’s site is also blocked. The ONI testing only had the capability to test a limited number of sites, but found around 85% of e-mail provider and e-mail group sites were blocked – the highest percentage for any group. The state sees open communication as a real and on-going threat to the state.
These sites are all blocked by firewall software. Burma’s MPT had been using the DansGuardian free source firewall filtering software to block these sites during the ONI testing. Recently the MPT have installed the Fortinet FortiGuard commercial filtering product. Fortinet denied that they had installations in Burma, despite their S.E.Asian sales director being reported in the New Light of Myanmar with the then prime minister. Obviously, trading with a notorious dictatorial regime is something they would rather not openly discuss. The new software will probably lead to a higher level of filtering capability as the regime tightens the screw even further on freedom of information.
e-mail & websites
Access to e-mail is available within Burma using the countries internal state-monitored e-mail intranet services. Access to the rest of the world is severely restricted. Free e-mail services such as hotmail and yahoo are blocked.
In order to create a website, a creator must obtain prior permission from the state to create web pages. As most dissident and pro-democracy organisations would be prohibited or severely restricted it is not surprising that few people bother. Websites in Burma are either state run or non-political, popular culture – popular music and dating sites have appeared in Rangoon and Mandalay.
Despite this overbearing authoritarian control, there are escape routes that the people who are willing to take the risk can operate; tunnels and proxy servers can be used to access practically any site around the world; but they may become the next victim to the regime’s blocking strategy. For those who live near the borders, India, Thailand Bangladesh and even China offer better internet access than Burma.
Monitoring
While scrutiny of non-encrypted e-mail is possible, the growing number of e-mails is likely to stretch even the paranoid regime. As prevention is better than cure, the regime imposes heavy penalties for breaking the myriad censorship laws. Self-censorship will continue for those constrained to using the state-run state-monitored internet services. For those who dare, writing in ‘code’, so-called subtle subversion, can get around the regime’s repressive censorship laws.
Conclusions
“Burma's authoritarian state imposes harsh restrictions on how its citizens may use the Internet by combining draconian, far-reaching, and hard-to-interpret laws, high prices for access, and extensive technical measures such as filtering Web content. The state's goal of eavesdropping on e-mail communication by Burmese citizens helps explain the high level of blocking of free Web-based e-mail sites in ONI's testing, and its repression of political dissent is demonstrated by the filtering of pages on opposition groups. Burma also seeks to block pornographic content, and prevented access to roughly two-thirds of such sites tested. Burma demonstrates lesser concern with topics such as gambling and other circumvention methods, such as anonymizers; these topics are either of less concern to the state or it has not yet been able to implement effectively a means of blocking them. The state's commitment to controlling access to on-line materials is demonstrated by its purchase and apparent implementation of Fortinet's Fortiguard Web filtering software; the level of blocking is reportedly even more restrictive now than when ONI performed its testing. As with other countries that ONI has reported on that employ commercial filtering products, Burma's use of Fortinet's Fortiguard highlights the spreading market for Internet filtering software products and services among states that filter. In sum, Burma's authoritarian laws and political system are replicated in its system of Internet control, making it one of the world's most repressive regimes in terms of controlling and monitoring activity on the Internet.”
The development of high technology communications in most countries has seen a growth in culture and freedom. When Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase ‘the global village’ in the 1960s, he was referring to the growth of television and radio – both are one way mass distribution and allow the controlling state to dictate what the people see and hear. “His thought is a guide to understanding environments, especially new ones as they enter and pervade society, like the computer is doing to biology and science, and how the world wide web is threatening to liberate the old information monopolies from governments and big corporations.” The mass communications of today is the internet and the mobile telephone. These are the new weapons of freedom and democracy as they give everyone the ability to talk to and listen to people around the world 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This capability is what frightens the regime – the people will gain the ability to see what freedom leads to in other countries. This is why the SPDC are trying to stifle any use of internet technology that isn’t directly supporting their view of the world; they will fail.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights : Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
References
1. Internet Filtering in Burma in 2005: A Country Study
Open Net Initiative.
http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/burma/
Further reading:
http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-103639
http://www.internetfreedom.org/
