Cutting Off Access

"Why is the internet cut off?"

This was the question asked to a defecting Tatmadaw officer, and his answer surprised everyone:

"It's because military leaders are petrified of the idea that we will get the correct information and take an ethical stand on the right side, my fellow comrades."

Up to this point, most Burmese protesters assumed the primary purpose of the internet shutoff was to cut off activists from speaking to one another, as well as to the outside world. While this is certainly part of the story, few realized that the internet cuts were largely motivated out of a need to control access to the soldiers themselves, to ensure their indoctrination was complete and unaffected by news of outside events.

So powerful was this answer that several activists captured these words in print, and distribute the message far and wide, via social media as well as through printed pamphlets. If these words get as far to soldiers and police themselves, they may begin to awake from the lies they've been told, and lives can be saved as fewer will be inclined to follow orders.

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