users reported data access on their mobile
phones was suddenly restored.
Norway’s Telenor ASA, which runs one of
Myanmar’s main wireless carriers, said the
communications ministry cited “circulation of
fake news, stability of the nation and interest of
the public” in ordering operators to temporarily
shut down networks.
Telenor said it had to comply with local laws.
“We deeply regret the impact the shutdown has
on the people in Myanmar,” it said.
It’s a familiar move by Myanmar’s government,
which carried out one of the world’s longest
internet shutdowns in Rakhine and Chin states
aimed at disrupting operations of an armed
ethnic group. The cutoff began in June 2019 and
was only lifted on Feb. 3.
Another long-running internet shutdown is in
Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which has been choked
off since fighting started in early November --
the latest in a series of outages with no sign of
service returning anytime soon. That’s made it
challenging to know how many civilians have
been killed, to what extent fighting continues or
whether people are starting to die of starvation,
as some have warned.
In Uganda, restrictions on social media sites
including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
took effect ahead of a Jan. 14 presidential
election, along with a total internet blackout
on the eve of polling. Authorities said it was to
prevent opposition supporters from organizing
potentially dangerous street protests.
The social media curbs were lifted Wednesday,
except for Facebook. Longtime leader Yoweri
Museveni, who was facing his biggest challenge