Myanmar’s political historical past is riddled with violent army coups. On February 1, 2021, Senior Normal Min Aung Hlaing took management of Myanmar and reverted the budding democracy right into a violent authoritarian regime. This is the third time {that a} army took management of the nation in post-independence Burmese historical past, 59 years after the primary coup led by Normal Ne Win and 32 years after the second ordered by SLORC. As a lot because the nation’s historical past is rife with brutal army regimes, additionally it is full of the individuals’s revolutions to combat towards army rule, probably the most distinguished being the 8888 Rebellion, the Saffron Revolution, and at present the Spring Revolution.
The Spring Revolution is distinct from the earlier revolutions in that it’s the most sturdy anti-military political motion the nation has ever seen. Whereas each the 8888 Rebellion and the Saffron Revolution lasted solely for just a few months, the Spring Revolution continues to realize momentum in 2024, greater than three years after the latest coup d’etat occurred. Protracted battle remains to be ongoing throughout the nation. As of April 26, 2024, 4,946 civilians have been murdered by the regime, and 26,573 had been arrested. Regardless of the violent crackdown, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to protest the army takeover. The continuing Spring Revolution encompasses totally different actors and initiatives, together with however not restricted to the Civil Disobedience Motion (CDM), frontline protests, the Nationwide Unity Authorities (NUG), and the Folks’s Defence Pressure (PDF).
To strengthen cooperation throughout the totally different branches of the Spring Revolution, pro-democracy activists are more and more counting on social media. Particularly for ladies, social media has develop into a robust area to precise their political views and set up towards the junta. To answer the rising on-line resistance, the army authorities has carried out draconian measures of digital repression that actively persecute civilians who present help for the opposition on-line. On-line violence towards pro-democracy activists usually interprets into offline violence such as arrests and sexual violence. The Burmese army’s digital repression is extremely gendered as ladies activists expertise considerably increased charges of gender-based violence and persecution in comparison with their male counterparts.
Authoritarian actions and responses to on-line dissent in Myanmar may be sorted into 5 classes: web shutdowns, on-line censorship, surveillance, focused persecution of on-line customers, and social media manipulation and disinformation. Nonetheless, ladies on-line activists in Myanmar additionally face particular types of gender-based violence along with these 5 classes. Some examples of such gender-based violence embody doxxing, abusive messages that includes sexist language, leaking intimate movies and pictures with out consent, sexualized disinformation, threats of sexual violence, rape threats, and demise threats. Totally different types of sexualized repression have probably the most traumatic bodily and psychological results as these repression techniques topic ladies on-line activists and their households to societal disgrace. An awesome majority of gender-based on-line violence focused at pro-democracy ladies is carried out by males.
Girls in Myanmar who categorical their political views on social media are focused for doxxing at a a lot increased price than politically lively males on-line. Doxxing is especially a gendered digital repression tactic within the context of Myanmar since many ladies activists who had been doxxed by pro-military and male-identifying social media personalities, corresponding to Han Nyein Oo and Ba Nyunt, have been arrested by safety forces. The arrest comes with the extra hazard of extra gendered violence towards ladies since mass rape of ladies and ladies is systematically employed by the Burmese army.
The gendered nature of the Burmese army authorities’s digital repression is worrisome as a result of on-line violence towards ladies serves as a major barrier to their significant political participation. Based on the 2023 Freedom Home Freedom on the Web Report, Myanmar has one of the digitally repressive regimes on the earth, second solely to China. Enabled by the political help of Russia and China, and outfitted with worldwide surveillance applied sciences, the Burmese regime is committing crimes towards humanity focused at people who communicate out towards the army rule on social media. Girls bear the brunt of this focused digital repression solely as a result of their gender.
The case of Myanmar highlights how autocrats are leveraging social media as a political device to not solely react to but in addition proactively deter ladies’s on-line activism. On-line repression techniques employed by the Burmese army is likely to be interesting to different authoritarian governments for oppressing feminist dissent in their very own international locations. This somber potential, if realized, can additional set again ladies’s rights in numerous authoritarian regimes at a extremely alarming price. Due to this fact, it’s not enough for the worldwide neighborhood to merely condemn gendered digital repression in Myanmar by way of statements and press releases. Worldwide stakeholders have to collaborate with civil society in Myanmar to supply ladies with sturdy coaching in digital safety that may allow them to proceed combating for democracy in safer but extra artistic and subversive types of digital activism.
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