Myanmar civil society groups said on Tuesday that they are suing the Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor, alleging that it shared customer user data with the military regime which seized power in Naypyidaw during the coup on Feb. 1, 2021.
This allowed the regime to track, imprison and kill citizens who oppose it.
Telenor, which is majority-owned by Norway’s government, sold its business in Myanmar after the 2021 coup that ousted the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, to avoid European Union sanctions after pressure from the regime to activate intercept surveillance technology.
The claimants allege Telenor, which was one of the largest foreign investors in Myanmar, handed over data from some of its 18 million customers to comply with requests from the regime before selling to a new majority-owner with a history of business ties to the military.
Telenor said in a statement to Reuters that it did not see anything in the legal notice that had not already been addressed including in previous police and court investigations in Norway.
It said the company found itself in a “terrible and tragic situation” in Myanmar with “no good options” as disobeying orders from the regime would have “been perceived as terrorism and sabotage, and would have put employees in direct danger.”
“Like all operators in any country, Telenor Myanmar was legally required to provide traffic data to the authorities,” the company said.
Joseph Wilde-Ramsing of the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), a nonprofit organization working with the Myanmar civil society groups, said the data handed over included “call logs and location data that could be used to track down the junta’s political opponents and their family members.”
In a statement, the groups said they had sent a pre-action letter to Telenor, the first step in bringing a lawsuit, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. They said the sale of Telenor to majority-owner Shwe Byain Phyu in March 2022 effectively granted Naypyidaw “unfettered access” to customer data.
Shwe Byain Phyu did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did Myanmar’s military regime.
Lawmaker executed
Myanmar has been in crisis since the 2021 coup and ensuing military crackdown on anti-coup protests, which sparked a nationwide armed uprising.
The regime has killed almost 7,000 people and arrested close to 30,000, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a nonprofit monitoring group. The regime denies accusations it has targeted civilians and says it is fighting “terrorists.”
The civil society groups bringing the lawsuit, Defend Myanmar Democracy and the Myanmar Internet Project, said several people were arbitrarily detained and tortured in custody after their Telenor data was shared and at least one person was killed.
Phyo Zeyar Thaw, a popular hip hop artist and NLD lawmaker, was executed alongside three other pro-democracy activists accused of carrying out “terror acts” in 2022, prompting an international outcry.
The lawmaker’s wife, another popular hip hop artist named Thazin Nyunt Aung, who is among the claimants, said in the statement she was “terribly disturbed and shocked” by Telenor’s link to her husband’s arrest, which she said came a few weeks after the firm passed data from his cell phone to the regime.
The statement did not cite specific evidence but a lawyer at Simonsen Vogt Wiig, the firm representing the groups, said the decision to hand over data went “all the way to the top” of Telenor.
Ko Ye, another claimant in the lawsuit, told Reuters many Myanmar people chose to use Telenor’s network because they believed it was the safest option due to its international connections.
“Those corporations they have to respect our rights. Our data is part of our rights, they cannot do whatever they want,” he said.
REUTERS
