Title: Virtual Uprising: Burmese Bloggers and the Online Rights

Movement in Myanmar
Submission Type: Paper
Authors: Sills, Stephen J. (University of North Carolina
Greensboro)
Myanmar is a Southeast Asian country of roughly 55 million
Abstract: people.
Following its independence from the UK in 1948 it has been in an
almost continuous state of civil war. The country maintained a
brief
democratic government (1948 – 1962). Since 1962, there have
been a series of rulers to take power in military coups leaving
peaceful protestors dead, the main university closed for two
years,
and the populace fearful of the military rulers. Myanmar today is
home to a repressive military, severe human rights abuses, forced
child labor. The populace failed in uprisings in the 1960s and 80s
to
overturn the government. In 2007, demonstrations by Burmese
monks, dubbed the "Saffron Revolution," led to yet another
crack-down. Recently, activists and political dissidents in Myanmar
have relied on the internet as a means to carry their protest to the
world. Bloggers affiliated with activist movements have became
the
source for many news reports and acted as de facto journalists
covering recent events in the country. Bloggers within Myanmar
and around the world have staged virtual protests, online rallies,
international petition drives and educational campaigns to create
pressure on the government. The reaction has been to monitor,
suppress, and imprison bloggers. The government has even
engaged in technological warfare attacking anti-government
websites hosted in other countries and finally shutting down
internet connectivity within the country. This paper looks at the
blogging and the “virtual” protest movement for Burma tracing its
early stages of voicing political opposition to the recent
"uprisings,”
petition drives and educational campaigns

Keywords: Social Change

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