“How global tech companies prop up Myanmar’s digital dictatorship”, June 2021

…Since the power grab, at least 860 people are estimated to have been killed at the hands of security forces, with thousands injured and hundreds subjected to torture. More than 6,000 have been detained, 80 percent of whom remain in custody.

At the same time, the digital world turned into a “parallel battlefield” between the junta and its opponents.

Shortly after taking power, the Tatmadaw drastically ramped up online repression, enacting laws to gain access to user data and prosecute its opponents. Daily notices to mobile operators and internet service providers were issued to restrict access to websites and VPNs. Smartphone data has been used as evidence for mass arrests.

Authorities would soon respond to mounting protests with a complete internet shutdown, and blocking Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram.

Now, according to leaked budgetary records from Myanmar’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) and Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC), the Tatmadaw’s efforts to suppress its own citizens has been aided by technology sold to it by Western companies.

Obtained by the research and advocacy group Justice for Myanmar (JFM), the leaks were passed onto Lighthouse Reports which initiated an investigation with several media outlets and identified 40 international manufacturers and developers.

The procurements, made between 2018 and 2021, reveal an array of spying and forensic products the government sought to acquire, from software interception systems to hack calls and messages, crack passwords, extract and decrypt mobile data, and conduct facial recognition…

Evidence of surveillance technology being used by the Myanmar state…was revealed when it surfaced that the military used phone-hacking technology from Israeli spyware firm Cellebrite to arrest two Reuters journalists for investigating a military massacre of ten Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State in 2017.

After the incident became public, Cellebrite claimed to have pulled out of Myanmar. The government hunted out alternatives to fill the gap.

Two Canadian companies listed in the latest budget leaks, OpenText and Magnet Forensics, say they sold equipment before the February coup and halted further sales to the country in line with Canada’s arms embargo regime…

Another company is Swedish firm MSAB, which confirmed to The Intercept that it sold data extraction software in 2019 to the MOTC’s cybercrime office, which collaborates with the police…

…US digital forensics firm Oxygen Forensics confirmed that it sold one license in January 2019 but wouldn’t disclose to whom…

Another is Italy’s SecurCube, which previously stated it has never directly sold any products to Myanmar. But intermediary firms which purchased its technology, like MySpace International, show up in the leaks.

MySpace International’s website is no longer reachable, but a version of the page has been archived that mentions MSAB, SecurCube and Oxygen Forensics as its suppliers, among others.

… the Tatmadaw installed 335 Huawei surveillance cameras with facial recognition and license plate ID software as part of its “Safe City” programme. Many military personnel are sent to Russia for training in surveillance technology.

Vietnam has also been complicit in technology transfers, with officials from Vietnamese military conglomerate Viettel operating and maintaining secret military infrastructure in the country.

…a JFM investigation revealed Indian majority state-owned arms manufacturer Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) suppliedat least seven shipments of radar technology and communication equipment to the junta after the coup…