June 13, 2024
Citizens have reported that they are facing threats of arrest and extortion for having VPNs on their mobile phones. Individuals who have personally experienced these threats shared their accounts with New Day Myanmar.
The Myanmar military junta’s soldiers are reportedly stopping people at checkpoints and conducting random phone searches. If they find a VPN installed on a person’s phone, they threaten arrest and demand money in exchange for not detaining them.
“I was stopped and searched, and they found a VPN on my phone. They threatened to arrest me and took me to the local administration office. My family had to bring 500,000 kyats to secure my release. They also made me delete the VPN from my phone,” said a resident of the Ayeyarwady Region who experienced this firsthand.
Similarly, a Yangon resident reported that rumors of imprisonment for VPN use are widespread, leading many people to uninstall their VPNs before leaving home.
The junta began restricting VPN use at the end of May. Additionally, in January 2022, they planned to implement a cybersecurity law that would impose up to three years of imprisonment for VPN usage.
