The military faces a long-term strategic challenge in managing internet use as it seeks to consolidate power in the coup’s wake. Why does it matter? The internet shutdown has undermined the opposition movement – particularly its ability to organise street protests – but at huge social and economic cost. Activists have used social media platforms – particularly Facebook – highly effectively to organise protests, galvanise the public and document abuses, while the military has been banned from Facebook altogether, limiting its outreach abilities.

Why did it happen? The military was losing the online battle and felt it had few options. What’s new? After first trying to restrict internet use by banning social media platforms, enacting legal changes and ordering night-time outages, the Myanmar military has shut down nearly all access to the web in the wake of the 1 February coup d’état and started establishing a countrywide intranet with limited services.

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