Burma Junta Steps Up Cyber War On Bloggers

Junta Steps Up Cyber War On Bloggers

Burma's ruling generals are planning to throttle the flow of information and images transmitted from Burma via the internet during the national referendum, which is scheduled for May 10.

Phase one will be to reduce bandwidth, slowing down information flow, and phase two would be a total disconnect , if required. Internet users in Rangoon are already reporting that internet speed has slowed dramatically.

During last September's "Saffron Revolution" scores of photographs and videos streamed out of the country, with internet users finding ways to circumvent blocks on news sites. The role of bloggers was crucial, as only a handful of Western journalists managed to remain undercover inside the country.

Young technically-savvy Burmese used ingenious techniques to outsmart the junta. These "citizen journalists" refer to the uprising as the "Glite Revolution", named after a proxy server popular in Burmese cybercafes.

ENDS

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