Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
Myanmar military coup bans Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp (imgur.com)
14 points by kyawzazaw on Feb 3, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments



I'm curious about the practical mechanics of this kind of thing.

Are there armed squads with AK-47's breaking in datacenter doors and forcing network engineers to update firewalls at gunpoint?

Or do they have a bunch of the local equivalent of FBI agents making phone calls to various executives saying "Block Facebook or we'll send you to jail"?

And what about VPN's?


Yes and yes.

The military also operate two telcos.

People are using VPNs but you have to understand that a significant number of people are extremely tech illiterate.


@netblocks Confirmed: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp servers are now restricted in #Myanmar on state-owned internet provider MPT; real-time metrics show selective filtering in place even as basic connectivity is restored following military coup Chart with downwards trend

https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1357078197989474305?s=2...


Unconfirmed order (which is the best we can provide here) Note, in Myanmar, Facebook is THE internet.

Users report MPT(partial state-owned telco) already done this.

Edit: Telenor telco as well.


> Note, in Myanmar, Facebook is THE internet.

I've seen comments like this in the past: how does that situation come to be? Is access to everything cut off such that it's the only available internet? Comments about "Facebook being THE internet" always leave me wanting to know WHY this is the case.


Cheap phones (symbian, garbage android) pre-loaded with FB app, combined with SIM data plans that allot more data allowance to FB.

Some countries in this geography have 2.5/3G in the last decade, so there's a whole generation of users who don't know what's outside the walled garden.


Extremely expensive sim prices($3000) during the complete dictator years -prior to 2010 -, meanwhile minimum wage *per day* is less than $4 in 2020.

Mobile penetration is 90% in a few years.

Facebook worked with local telcos to bring about things like Facebook Zero, Facebook Basics.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: