Myanmar's military junta seeks ban on VPNs and digital currency
- Reference: 1643007726
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/01/24/myanmar_military_junta_bans_vpns_crypto/
- Source link:
The draft [1]bill , dated January 13 is signed by Soe Thein, permanent secretary of the military's transport and communications ministry and is undergoing request for comments until January 28. Upon adoption, it will subject VPN users to between one and three years inside, and fines of up to five million Myanmar Kyats ($2,800).
The bill also bans the use of digital currency, under penalty of imprisonment for six months to a year, and the same fine used to deter VPN use.
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Furthermore, it obligates service providers to provide the personal information of users – like name, address and access history – to authorities if requested. Similar stipulations have caused telcos to leave the region in the past. Norwegian mobile carrier [3]Telenor left in September 2021 when the ruling junta wanted to intercept calls carried on its network.
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For many in Myanmar, Facebook is synonymous with the internet. As the country faced a military coup in February 2021, the newly installed Tatmadaw [6]banned Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, prompting users in the country to rely on VPNs to retain access to their preferred online communication services.
Around the same time as the prohibition on social media, a proposed VPN ban hit strong objections from both tech and commerce advocate organisations, thus allowing the country's internet users to continue to communicate without changing platforms.
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BBC Myanmar [12]reported that the January 13 bill and its 115 clauses is stronger than the Junta's efforts in 2021.
VPNs have long been a [13]restricted technology in China , which also seeks to limit the material its citizens can access.
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Digital and human rights advocates fear a VPN ban will damage pro-democracy organisations, like the National Unity Government, and benefit the military junta.
"The proposed bill is draconian, even by the standards of the Burmese military. The first version of the bill proposed in February 2021 was dropped after industry and civil society united to push back, but the military has been set on getting its way," Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, told The Register .
NetBlocks describes itself as "a global internet monitor working at the intersection of digital rights, cybersecurity and internet governance."
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Toker said VPN services were "requisite to connect with the outside world from Myanmar since the coup, due to restrictions on social media and international platforms imposed by the post-coup authority," as well as "essential for business and international trade, particularly in the digital services sector."
"These are certain to have a chilling effect on political speech and human rights, but ultimately this is only going to turn public sentiment further against military rule," added Toker. ®
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[1] https://twitter.com/akmoe2/status/1485304924342829056
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Ye6G1SBF3IdsUlVWQXCSJQAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/16/telenor_myanmar_interception_requirement/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ye6G1SBF3IdsUlVWQXCSJQAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ye6G1SBF3IdsUlVWQXCSJQAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/07/myanmar_orders_blocks_of_twitter/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/19/tesla_manslaughter_autopilot/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/20/ipv4_nats_slow_ipv6_transition/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/17/who_me/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/20/no_place_hide_campaign_anti_e2ee_ukgov/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/20/windows_11_build/
[12] https://www.bbc.com/burmese/burma-60102459?xtor=AL-73-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Bbbc.news.twitter%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bburmese%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D&at_custom4=D1CB9964-7C54-11EC-A72E-5DC74744363C&at_campaign=64&at_medium=custom7&at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&at_custom3=BBC+Burmese&at_custom2=twitter
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/20/china_vpn_foreign_investment/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ye6G1SBF3IdsUlVWQXCSJQAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ye6G1SBF3IdsUlVWQXCSJQAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I wonder ....
.... if steganography might be the answer!
Embed your message in funny cat pics, and send them back and forth!
Re: I wonder ....
And you post those pictures where, exactly? And the person who decodes them and forwards on your message is where?
For individual and short communications, this works great. Were there a small set of people plotting against the junta, be that planning to act to remove them from power or merely planning to spread some information that they want the public to overlook, steganography could be used to exchange those messages. The participants would have to find a service which is still allowed and post images that aren't suspicious. However, they can also simply use a shared encrypted channel that isn't yet blocked and get the same result. For example, they could log into a shared Google document using HTTPS, and if they did so, the traffic would look like normal Google traffic.
The primary use, however, appears to be Facebook, or more broadly, large group communication. Steganography isn't useful in this case. A message hidden in a picture can't be broadcast to thousands or millions unless someone takes it out of the picture. Even if we made a steganographic VPN that would decode hidden messages and reencode them for each user, the required bandwidth for sending innocuous data would end up being infeasible. It would also end up having a distinct signature making it perhaps even easier to block than normal VPNs.
They are banning VPNs and cryptos when the entire world is adopting them. This is just hilarious, just curious what was the main motive behind this?
Errm. Have you been living under a rock for the last year? A Military coup killing their own citizens says it all really.
Though to be fair, when they had a democratically elected head of state she was just as enthusiastic about killing citizens. The whole country's a god-awful mess.
"just curious what was the main motive behind this?"
VPNs: "If they can't talk on Facebook, and we don't let them circle around our block by using a VPN, then they can't figure out that everyone else hates dictatorships, right"?
Cryptocurrency: "If they're all using local currency, we can cut it off with greater ease when we don't like what they did with it."
Of course, with cryptocurrency, they're eventually going to have to add real currencies other than theirs to the list or give up on that one. Citizens are more likely to use dollars, rupees, or whatever international currency is easy to import than to agree on a blockchain to use.
Nothing should be able to thwart the Great Eye of Surveillance
And anything that does is automatically criminal and unacceptable.
You will hide nothing, but you will still live in fear.