Myanmar civil groups set to sue Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor

Myanmar civil society groups are set to sue the Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor for sharing customer data with the Southeast Asian nation’s ruling military, which reportedly allowed the junta to track, imprison, and kill civilians.

According to the Myanmar groups, Telenor, which was one of the largest foreign investors in the Southeast Asian nation, handed over data for some of its 18 million customers to comply with requests from the military. Telenor did this before selling to a new majority-owner with a history of business ties to the military.

The firm, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian government, sold its business in Myanmar after the 2021 military coup that overthrew an elected government, in order to avoid EU sanctions. This was done because the junta was pressuring the company to use surveillance technology.

Telenor receives pre-action letter  

In response, Telenor said that it did not see anything in the legal notice that had not already been addressed 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. 

The firm explained that disobeying orders from the junta 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, working with the civil society groups, said the data handed over included call logs and location data. This could be used to track down the junta’s political opponents and their family members.

According to a copy seen by Reuters, the groups said they had sent a pre-action letter to Telenor. This is the first step in bringing a lawsuit. They stated that the sale of Telenor to its majority owner, Shwe Byain Phyu, in March 2022 effectively granted the military “unfettered access” to customer data.

Thousands killed and tens of thousands arrested

Myanmar has seen frequent violent outbursts since the coup and the military’s response to the protests. 

The non-profit group called the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners claims that the junta has killed almost 7,000 people and arrested close to 30,000 others. The military says it is fighting “terrorists” and rejects firing on civilians.

Defend Myanmar Democracy and the Myanmar Internet Project, two civil society groups that brought the case, said that after their Telenor data was shared, several people were detained without reason and tortured while in custody, and at least one person was killed.

The execution of Phoe Zeya Thaw and three other activists accused of trying to carry out “terror acts” in 2022 caused outrage around the world.

The lawmaker’s wife, Tha Zin, who is among the claimants, said in the statement she was “terribly disturbed and shocked” by Telenor’s link to his arrest. She said it came a few weeks after the firm passed data from his cell phone to the military.

A lawyer for the groups at Simonsen Vogt Wiig said that the choice to hand over the data came from “all the way to the top” of Telenor. However, the statement did not give any specific evidence to this claim.

Additionally, Ko Ye, another individual suing, told Reuters that many people in Myanmar chose to use Telenor’s network because they believed it was the safest, as it connected to global networks.

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