In Myanmar’s capital, residents limit use of VPNs due to shakedown by junta officials

Myanmar regime officials’ increasingly common practice of extorting money from people with Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps installed on their phones has now spread to Naypyitaw, residents of the junta-controlled national capital said. One civilian said that local administrators in a residential ward of Lewe Township, Naypyitaw Union Territory had begun looking through residents’ mobile phones during nighttime household inspections, demanding bribes of 50,000 kyat (US $15) when they found a VPN. VPNs protect users’ information from online surveillance by encrypting and protecting the confidentiality of online data sent between clients and servers. “In the past, they just checked the household registration and overnight guests, but now they’re inspecting phones and demanding money, practically robbing us,” said the Naypyitaw resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons. A man living in Pyinmana Township, Naypyitaw Union Territory said that a team of traffic patrolmen, police, soldiers, and local administrators had been stopping and searching motorcyclists in the township, and had confiscated at least four phones with VPNs installed. “I thought they were going to check my licence as usual, and I had all the necessary documents. But instead, they inspected my phone and found a VPN, so they confiscated it. I offered them money to get my phone back, but it was in vain,” he said. Naypyitaw locals said that on Saturdays and Sundays, authorities conduct inspections mainly on busy streets or in crowded marketplaces in the Naypyitaw Union Territory’s townships of Pyinmana, Lewe, and Zabuthiri townships or the large village of Aye Lar east of the airport. The inspection of VPNs is impacting not only Naypyitaw’s ordinary citizens but also a number of the regime’s employees. Technically proficient people have begun to uninstall VPN apps on their phones before leaving their homes. “Now using VPNs requires careful consideration,” remarked a ministry employee in Naypyitaw who asked not to be named. “When I go out, I have to uninstall the app, and then reinstall it after returning home. Just stating that I'm a civil servant isn't sufficient anymore. That's how I’ve been managing it.” A social network user from Naypyitaw claimed to have been harassed by junta officials over her VPN app. "They checked our phones and if they found that we had a VPN installed, they demanded money. I'm not even sure whether an official law has been issued yet. If they are going to make a law, they should inform the public," the social media user said. "If they want to prohibit it in this country, they should say which law they are enforcing to arrest users and confiscate phones. They should announce the fines and jail time publicly,” she added. The junta has banned some popular internet sites such as Facebook with large user bases in Myanmar, rendering them impossible to access without a VPN. Other anecdotal accounts from Yangon and Mandalay regions and the Naypyitaw Union Territory suggest that the practice of extorting bribes from VPN users is becoming more common in different parts of Myanmar, but the military council has not made any public statements regarding the issue. However, the junta has previously taken steps to retaliate against Facebook after the social media platform introduced policies to contain the spread of pro-military propaganda. Maj.-Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for the military council, said at an August 2022 press conference that the junta was deliberately limiting access to Facebook by targeting VPN usage. “We are working to restrict the use,” Zaw Min Tun said, referring to internet traffic on Facebook in Myanmar. “The first [approach] is to restrict access through VPNs. Relevant ministries are making efforts to block access to internet pages via VPN, but our efforts have not been entirely successful.” A cybersecurity law first proposed by the junta in 2021 stipulated that anyone found to be using VPN technology to create, access, or make use of networks without prior authorisation from the home affairs ministry is subject to a sentence of up to three years in prison or fines of up to five million kyat (US $1,540). The regime has yet to enact the proposed law and the status of the draft bill is uncertain due to the military council’s silence on the matter. Nonetheless, the junta has taken other measures to toughen internet censorship and broaden surveillance. The investigative activist group Justice For Myanmar (JFM) issued a report this week detailing how the military junta is using technology and equipment from China to monitor Myanmar’s internet users. According to the JFM report, the junta has used tools developed by the Chinese entity Geedge Networks which purportedly have the capability to block access to VPNs and other apps; to decrypt intercepted data sent between servers and clients; and to monitor, archive, and analyse metadata on users’ internet traffic, including their use of VPNs.

In Myanmar’s capital, residents limit use of VPNs due to shakedown by junta officials

Authorities are checking residents’ phones and demanding bribes from civilians found to be protecting their information and search history from surveillance

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