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YANGON: Myanmar’s Ministry of Telecommunications said Tuesday (September 1) that it had ordered cell operators to block an online page through militants investigating the military for spreading false information, which the organization said is an attempt to silence critical voices.
Myo Swe, the ministry’s spokesman, said he had acted on reports through a security forces-related social media monitoring organization on the Crusader Organization Justice for Myanmar, which investigates the interests of the military.
“The social media tracking team discovered that some were spreading fake news,” Swe told Reuters on the phone.
An army spokesman responded to Reuters phone calls asking for comment.
Justice for Myanmar has published a series of research on its website, adding a report on corporations that donated an offensive against Rohingya Muslims to security forces in 2017, which was conducted with “genocidal intent.
The army denies the genocide, saying it participated in valid operations opposed to the militants.
In recent months, the Ministry of Telecommunications has blocked more than two hundred to spread what it considers false information, adding agencies that hide conflicts between army insurgents and ethnic minorities.
Telenor of Norway, one of the 4 cell phone operators in Myanmar, said in a statement that the ministry had invoked Section 77 of the Telecommunications Act, which authorizes the suspension of communication during an “emergency”, to order it to block an online page and 3 related IP addresses..
He did identify the website, but stated that he had complied with the order, but saw it with “serious concern.”He said he protested against the blockade, but he told whom.
On Tuesday, the Justice for Myanmar online page is not available in the interior of the country.
Instead, he replaced it with the message: “He tried to access a website that was blocked in accordance with the directive obtained from myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Communications.”
Yadanar Maung, a representative of the group, said in a statement that the blockade was “an attempt to silence dissent and conceal the fact about corruption and foreign crimes from the Myanmar army cartel.”
“We will continue to tell the fact to power.”