Myanmar’s military rulers have ordered providers to block Twitter and Instagram just days after Facebook shutdown.
According to observers from Telenor Myanmar, everything points to a national internet blackout, one of two utterly foreign-owned cell phone companies in the country.
The internet’s shutdown comes after numerous images of street protests against the coup circulated online. The deposed and placed under house arrest, ex-government leader Aung San Suu Kyi has previously called for opposition to the generals.
The coup follows Aung San Suu Kyi’s striking National League for Democracy election victory in November. The ballot box turned out to be a failure for the party the military had counted on. They are now claiming electoral fraud and have taken back power.
In Myanmar, then known as Burma, a military coup was staged in 1962 that allowed officers to establish a communist-style totalitarian state that has only slowly become freer since the end of the last century. The ‘Privy Councilor’ with which the military-ruled was only dissolved in 2011.