back to article In the old days, coups started by seizing TV and radio stations. Now they crimp the internet at 3am

Something nasty happened to the internet in Myanmar at around 3am local time (2030 UTC Sunday). Traffic dipped markedly. And by sunup the reason for the situation became clear: the nation’s military had decided to reclaim power after a brief period of democracy, and presumably restricted internet access to make it harder to …

  1. redpawn

    Sad

    and I bet the politically active there don't waste their time with Q-uidiacy. I'm afraid a dent in internet throughput here in the USA would have people in the streets screaming about how they can't watch cat videos and fight pedophile satanists.

    1. sev.monster Silver badge

      Re: Sad

      *pedo nazi fascist satanist white supremacist transphobic cisgendered heteronormative anti-minority anti-Black anti-BLM terrorist racists

      I think that's the longest chain of buzzwords I have ever buzzed.

      1. ssharwood

        Re: Sad

        John Scalzi's epithet - 'Racist Sexist Homophobic Dipshit' - has the same effect with fewer words IMHO.

        1. TheMeerkat

          Re: Sad

          Yes. It clearly shows that whoever just uttered it is an imbecile crippled with woke ideology.

  2. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    And via their shenanigans will global enemy leaderships be well known to you

    'Tis a double edged, dual use Sword of Damocles, the internet of world wide web pages advising you of planetary life phorms and their past, present and future ACTivities [Advanced Cyber Threat/Treats]. Remove and/or adversely alter or block ready easy access to any fundamental staple has one immediately identified as the enemy of all within and with a failing leadership too weak in the present to succeed in the future as a relic of the past.

    To bring such global attention upon oneself by such an egregious ACT is proof positive of an exercising of postmodern tyranny with an abundant catastrophic lack of necessary future intelligence.to proceed a great deal further and secure a safe and stable base position/future viable situation.

    Mess with the internet at your peril. IT is an alien space which takes neither prisoners nor slaveholders.

  3. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Well in US

    Well, in US, I've been surprised to see people who have a TV, but nothing running into the coax; they don't have cable *or* a TV antenna, they just stream everything. If you cut internet here, you'd have all these people who couldn't just not get online but couldn't get their TV either; they'd be very cranky, and if there was trouble in the capitol, they wouldn't know, they'd just know their internet's down.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: Well in US

      "they wouldn't know, they'd just know their internet's down."

      I'm pretty sure that's exactly why the Myanmar military did it.

    2. tekHedd

      Re: Well in US

      And why bother? With only a handful of companies owning all of the media networks, it would be fairly easy to subvert the information sources without alerting the public, branding any remaining sources of dissent as fake news.

      Of course I speak hypothetically here, and certainly do not suggest that this has already happened.

      1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

        In the UK, as well as in US, CHAOS Rules ‽ . *

        And why bother? With only a handful of companies owning all of the media networks, it would be fairly easy to subvert the information sources without alerting the public, branding any remaining sources of dissent as fake news.

        Of course I speak hypothetically here, and certainly do not suggest that this has already happened. .... tekHedd

        I would certainly suggest such has been happening since as long as anyone can remember, tekHedd, and bumbling governments are well aware of it too and would even try to make full use of it to realise their own politically inept ends. Controlling it though is not within their ken or reach, nor are they able to command it to lead an ignorant undereducated electorate en masse in any particular favourite direction, although they sure do try. Nowadays though, all former bets are off, null and void, for the internet has opened up a massive number of cans of worms and Remote Access Trojans and bugs and daemons for human consumption and perception management which are a whole new world of pain and phenomenal gain to do battle with.

        Here is decade old UK government read on such a matter ..... MINDSPACE Influencing behaviour through public policy ...... a Cabinet Office/Institute for Government publication/discussion document ..... https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/MINDSPACE.pdf

        * .... Clouds Hosting Advanced Operating Systems Rule is a very simple complicating question to ask yourself. What would you be most worried about if the correct answer terrified you? CHAOS might like to know lest Madness and Mayhem venture forth down a branch exploring another route and root requiring media attention or censure.

        Ps ..... Is the East significantly better than the West at effectively dealing with both the problems and opportunities Virtually Advanced IntelAIgent Operating Systems present and enable them to operate in Real Physical World Scenarios and Live Operational Virtual Environments alike?

        1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

          Re: In the UK, as well as in US, CHAOS Rules ‽ . *

          And it is the gift which just keeps on forever giving to those ACTively Engaged and Sublimely Enabled with NEUKlearer Forces and Sources Simply Exercising HyperRadioProACtive IT Connectivity with/for Quantum Communication Control Systems ?

          It certainly appreciates the radio silence assisting its stealthy deployments and surreal employments.

          I Kid U Not ..... however, rather bizarrely, the fact that one might think and conclude "You are kidding me" is an absolute stealth freely delivered with no equal which money alone cannot buy should such ever be a commodity for sale/export/import/lend-lease.

          1. sev.monster Silver badge
            Happy

            Re: In the UK, as well as in US, CHAOS Rules ‽ . *

            The legendary if not often seen Mars man double post.

            Keep it up dude. Love the interrobang‽

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Henry Wertz 1 - Re: Well in US

      "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy"

  4. Anonymous Coward
  5. KBeee
    Unhappy

    Copycat coup?

    Citing "voter fraud" and Covid-19 to allow the military of Myanmar to take control after they lost the elections seems to be taking a leaf from someone elses playbook.

    1. onemark03

      Re: Copycat coup?

      Yup.

      There are some people in this world who simply like giving orders rather than taking them.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Copycat coup?

      I think if you read up on the modern history of Burma/Myanmar, you will find that the Military there have no particular need of looking at anyone else's anti-democracy playbook.

      1. genghis_uk

        Re: Copycat coup?

        Absolutely agree but just as every autocrat now follows the US 'War on terror' and claims 'terrorism' to introduce draconian measures, every coup will claim 'election fraud' to justify their actions.

  6. Insert sadsack pun here

    Telenor...

    ...is a Norwegian company, isn't it?

    Is there a suggestion that they were complicit in, or required to assist, the junta's interference with connectivity?

  7. Eclectic Man Silver badge

    Taking over the Radio Station

    My uncle worked for BBC News. He was literally listening to a foreign country's radio broadcast in the BBC's listening centre in Caversham*, when he heard the door open, footsteps, a shot and someone announced there had been a coup.

    *I'm told the subsoil is perfect for radio reception, maybe some of el Reg's gardener types can explain this.

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