“We have barely scratched the surface of what borderless, permissionless, immutable networks can do to undermine oppressive regimes”
When pro-democracy rallies were met with violent affronts on the right to protest last year, activists from Myanmar and Jakarta to Belarus, London and Minneapolis found groundbreaking ways to use their voice online. But what does this new era of digital disobedience mean for our virtual safety, and where in the cybersphere might protest be erupting next?
It’s April 1, 2021, and the Myanmar military has just switched off the internet.
Nandar, a 26-year-old activist whose street in Yangon is frequently patrolled by the army, is suddenly unable to run her feminist podcast and assist in the resistance movement that has set fire to the city.
Since the military coup began in February, young protesters like Nandar have been forced off-grid in the face of industrial-scale cybersecurity measures like these. Taught by a fellow human rights advocate to use encryption software like VPNs and switch SIM cards, she found new ways to circumnavigate the army, coordinate rallies and communicate. “Because of this takeover, we saw the solidarity and strength in young people,” Nandar says from the base she fled to from Yangon. “More and more people are thinking about means to connect and revolutionise the movement. There is hope in that.”
When protesters were able to physically organise in Myanmar, they formed flash mobs, dressed as ghosts, bodybuilders and beauty queens to distract guards, and
