A year after his release from jail, where he was tortured and detained by Myanmar’s military, Bo Maung* remains committed to non-violent resistance. Like other activists in the country he now works underground, relying on his social networks to stay ahead of the growing arsenal of digital surveillance which the junta is wielding to stay in power.
Burner phones, fake Facebook accounts, frequent relocation – these are some of the anti-surveillance measures the 19-year-old takes to organize online campaigns against the army’s abuses. Speaking via a video call from Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, Bo Maung admits that current activism is a shadow of the mass demonstrations that rose across the country in 2021. However, he still thinks it helps ‘to keep the public informed’ and ‘connected’.
Bo Maung was arrested for participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement that But a deadly military crackdown crushed the largely peaceful uprising, driving many to pick up weapons instead. As civilian militias fight junta forces in vast swathes of the country, unarmed revolutionaries face off against a more opaque adversary: the surveillance state.
