Nearly a thousand Burmese demonstrated in Yangon on Saturday, the biggest rally since the coup against Aung San Suu Kyi, while the putschist generals, with whom the UN has established initial contact, censored the internet.
• Read also: First contact between the UN and the Burmese army since the coup
“Down with the military dictatorship,” shouted protesters in the economic capital, waving red flags in the colors of the National League for Democracy (LND), the party of the former 75-year-old leader, arrested Monday.
Censorship continues. Access to Twitter and Instagram was restricted on Friday evening in an attempt to silence the protest that continues to emerge in the country, especially on social networks where the hashtags #WeNeedDemocracy, #HeartheVoiceofMyanmar, #Freedomfromfear have been used millions of times .
The Norwegian group Telenor, one of the main telecommunications operators in the country, confirmed that the authorities had ordered the blocking of these platforms “until further notice”.
“We are deeply concerned” by this injunction which undermines “the right of people to make their voices heard,” a Twitter spokesperson told AFP.
The army had ordered two days earlier to prevent access to Facebook, the main communication tool for millions of Burmese.
These networks are used to “cause misunderstandings among the public”, justified the Ministry of Transport and Communications, in a document that AFP was able to consult.
In an attempt to escape censorship, the Burmese are turning to VPNs, virtual tools that allow them to bypass any geographic restriction.