Myanmar’s Digital Resistance: Ingenuity Under Repression
Even as Myanmar’s military tightens its grip on digital space, people on the ground keep adapting. Five studies map the creative resilience behind their organizing, fundraising, and survival.
Since Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, the junta has tightened control over online life through surveillance, restrictions, and periodic shutdowns. Yet digital platforms remain essential to how people organize, share information, raise funds, and sustain hope.
Over the last two years, we’ve supported 26 research studies on how these technologies shape Myanmar’s political struggle. Here we highlight five papers that show what digital resistance looks like in practice—its ingenuity, its risks, and what allies can do to strengthen it.
These studies were published by The SecDev Foundation and Knowledge for Democracy Myanmar, supported by the International Development Research Centre and Global Affairs Canada.
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Watch a short video featuring these investigations:
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Policing Mobile Money:
Digital Financial Repression in Post-Coup Myanmar
By Bradley, Gar, and Vox
As mobile wallets and online banking become more central to daily life, the military regime has expanded efforts to monitor transactions and target funds linked to resistance activity. This paper examines how digital finance becomes a tool of control—and explores potential countermeasures, from encryption tools to more decentralized infrastructure.
Targeted Identities:
Online Harassment of LGBTQ Individuals in Myanmar
By Thein Dollar
Digital resistance also means resisting forced silence. This study shows how LGBTQ+ people face intensified online harassment as social media use grows—harms that can drive people out of public spaces and make civic participation riskier for everyone. It argues for stronger legal safeguards and more accessible mental-health and support services.
Digital Governance in Exile:
The National Unity Government’s Digital Services in Myanmar
By Kyaw Lwin and Myat Su Thwe
Myanmar’s exiled National Unity Government (NUG) is using digital tools to maintain a presence and deliver public services under military rule. Looking at ministries such as health and education, the authors show how access, security, trust, and multilingual inclusion shape what “governance” can mean in exile—and how donors could help close key gaps.
Listen to a podcast featuring the authors and their investigations of digital governance in exile:
Digital Resistance:
Online Spaces and Tools in Political Activism in Myanmar
By Thurein Lwin, Nyan Aye, Khit Tar, Aung Sett Paing & Aung Kyaw Soe
This paper explores how fear, surveillance, censorship, and burnout are reshaping online activism. It highlights what enables engagement—especially trust in credible sources—and recommends practical ways to sustain the movement: reduce overreliance on volunteers, build safer fundraising channels, and invest in models that can endure prolonged repression.
Fandom and Freedom Fighters:
The Role of Pop Fandom in Fundraising for Myanmar’s Revolution
By Nway and Htaike
K-pop, anime, and other fan communities have become a powerful fundraising and messaging network for the resistance. Drawing on interviews and digital ethnography, the authors trace how memes, livestreams, and group chats are repurposed for political action—and why these groups need support to counter censorship, harassment, and surveillance.
Allies needed
Across these papers, one message is clear: digital resistance is real—and requires a huge level of effort. People are building alternative systems for fundraising, service delivery, community protection, and political organizing while facing surveillance, harassment, and burnout.
They need allies with resources and leverage, not just attention. So dig into the research, then share it with the donors, governments, and tech platforms that can help. Myanmar’s democratic future needs allies.
Explore the full Myanmar Digital Research series on our website.
