Event Summary
A sharp intensification of Myanmar’s digital crackdown unfolded in September 2025, as the military regime deployed new surveillance tools and legal measures to further restrict civic space and monitor online activity. On 8 September, junta police and military forces in Nyaung Oo Township, Bagan used the AI-powered Person Scrutinization and Monitoring System (PSMS) to cross-check hotel guest lists leading to the arrest of several Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) members, including nurses and teachers who were visiting for pilgrimage. The following day, 9 September, Justice For Myanmar published an investigative report revealing that the Chinese company Geedge Networks has supplied the junta with a commercial version of China’s “Great Firewall.” According to this report, this technology enables the regime to conduct real-time surveillance and geolocation of Myanmar’s 33.4 million internet users, with operational support from 13 domestic telecommunications providers.
These developments build on the 30 July 2025 formal notification No. (113/2025) by junta leader Min Aung Hlaing bringing into force the Cybersecurity Law enacted on 1 January 2025. The law mandates that digital platforms with over 100,000 users retain detailed user data for up to three years and provide unrestricted access to the regime upon request. It also authorizes arbitrary shutdowns of online services and seizure of digital infrastructure, effectively legalizing censorship and asset confiscation. This legislation underpins a broader surveillance system developed since the 2021 coup, incorporating AI-powered PSMS, facial recognition CCTV networks, and national databases modeled after technologies from China, Russia, and India. These tools are actively used to target individuals based on social media activity, VPN usage, and online dissent. The law’s implementation marks a severe deterioration in Myanmar’s civic space, crushing digital freedoms, violating privacy, and silencing dissent. It entrenches authoritarian control over both virtual and physical spaces, leaving civil society actors, journalists, and ordinary citizens vulnerable to persecution and eliminating safe avenues for expression and mobilization. The law comes came to support technologies that have already resulted in mass arrests—1,657 people detained via PSMS in just three months (March-May 2025)—and world-record 85 internet shutdowns in 2024.
For journalists and media, the new surveillance tools and legal measures create immediate legal risks for using encrypted communication and VPNs, essential tools for their safety and work. This forces media further underground and accelerates a media blackout, depriving the public of independent information. For civil society and activists, the requirement for platforms to hand over data and use of PSMS dismantle digital anonymity. The resultant fear of arrest based on online activity is causing widespread self-censorship on social media and messaging apps, stifling free expression and organizing.