On 2 June, Justice for Myanmar, Mekong Watch, and five Japanese civil society organizations urged KDDI Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation to end their partnership with Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). They made this request due to MPT’s involvement in digital surveillance and censorship against civilians.

The groups said MPT was among the first operators to implement mass surveillance and censorship technology developed in collaboration with Chinese company Geedge Networks, described as a commercial version of China’s “Great Firewall,” which they said has given the junta unprecedented capabilities to track, arrest, torture and kill civilians.

MPT is operated jointly between the junta-controlled Ministry of Transport and Communications and Sumitomo Corporation and KDDI Corporation through the joint venture KDDI Summit Global Myanmar Co., Ltd. (KSGM).

In letters sent to both companies, the organisations asked whether KDDI and Sumitomo were aware of MPT’s role in mass surveillance, whether they intended to divest given escalating human rights risks, and whether they had conducted human rights due diligence on MPT’s provision of web hosting services to junta propaganda sites, including the Office of the Commander in Chief and junta outlets Infosheet and Myawaddy News.

In their responses, the companies said the agreement between KSGM and MPT had been revised to reduce the scope of support, and that KSGM does not have a capital relationship with MPT or participate in its joint operations. They also said they were not involved in, nor in a position to comment on, the specific surveillance products and website hosting activities raised in the inquiry.

The organisations rejected this explanation as inadequate, saying that even without a formal capital relationship, KSGM’s ongoing support for MPT’s telecommunications operations risks aiding and abetting the commission of international crimes by the junta.

Five years after the military coup, Myanmar’s internet is among the most restricted in the world, according to the groups. The junta has imposed cybersecurity and election-related laws that have led to prosecutions against more than 400 people, including for online activity, they said.

“MPT is a key part of the military’s digital architecture of control that is actively being used to surveil, arrest, torture and kill civilians,” Justice for Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung said, adding that Sumitomo and KDDI’s continued partnership with MPT poses risks not only to the people of Myanmar but also to the companies and investors through potential liability under international law.

“The two companies’ continued support of MPT while these human rights violations are taking place by the Myanmar military regime cannot be considered a fulfilment of their responsibility to protect human rights,” Yuka Kiguchi, Executive Director of Mekong Watch, said.