Fanny Potkin and Wa Lone

SINGAPORE (Reuters – Myanmar’s military is trying to control protests in the streets. However, a parallel battle has been taking place online. Eight people who are familiar with this tactic said that the junta used fake accounts to attack opponents and promote its message of seized power to safeguard the nation against election fraud.

According to four sources, thousands of soldiers were given the responsibility to carry out what’s commonly called information combat, or the Army, as it was banned by Facebook, the nation’s largest online platform.

People told Reuters that the mission of the Social Media Drive, which is part of the larger propaganda operation of the military, was to promote the junta’s views among the populace as well to monitor dissenters, and then attack them online as traitors.

“Soldiers are required to make several fake accounts, and they are then given talking points and content segments to put up,” Captain Nyi Thuta said. He defected to the army in February to fight for rebel forces. To track their activities, they also join online anti-coup groups. 

The 31-yearold claimed that he had been part of propaganda operations for the army up to his escape, and wrote speeches for Min Aung Hlaing, military chief.

Multiple requests to the military government spokesperson did not receive a response. A spokesperson for the junta on Myawaddy TV, owned by the army, accused opposition activists and media organizations of spreading fake news about Myanmar’s situation.

Eight people who knew about the social media drive asked for anonymity, citing fear of retaliation. Nyi Thuta was the only exception, as were Captain Lin Htet Aung (who defected to the army in April).

Tatmadaw is the military’s online propaganda campaign. This comes nine months after Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted as civilian leader. It claimed her National League for Democracy fraudulously won the November 2020 election. International election watchdogs said in a May report https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/myanmars-election-reflected-peoples-will-monitoring-group-says-2021-05-17 that the vote was fair.

According to Reuters, thousands of posts on social media platforms in 2021 were reviewed by the company. It was found that around 200 military personnel used their accounts on Facebook, YouTube TikTok and Twitter (NYSE:). They posted videos or messages claiming fraud and demonizing anti-coup protestors as traitors.

In over 100 cases, the messages or videos were duplicated across dozens of copycat accounts within minutes, as well as on online groups, purported fan channels for Myanmar celebrities and sports teams and purported news outlets, data from Facebook-owned online tracking tool Crowdtangle showed. 

Posts frequently referred to those who were opposed to the junta “enemies and terrorists” and stated variously that they wanted the destruction of the army and country.

Many of the opposition activists employ similar techniques, creating duplicate accounts with “Twitter groups” of hundreds of thousand members, and making anti-junta #tweets trendy, according to the review.

These tactics are not uncommon worldwide but can have a significant impact in Myanmar according to four Reuters researchers who claim that the majority of information is received via social media and less directly from news organizations. Over half of the population uses Facebook regularly.

“AGGRESSIVELY REMOOVED”

The United Nations claims that the Tatmadaw has jailed more than 1000 civilians and killed more than 1,000 since the coup. But the Army says the estimates are exaggerated. It also states that many of the soldiers were killed by rebel forces.

Rafael Frankel from Facebook, Asia Pacific’s director for public policy, said to Reuters that the company had “proactively” removed almost 98 per cent of hate speech in Myanmar.

Responding to queries about army’s use of fake accounts, he said that “our ban on the Tatmadaw has made it easier for people to misuse the services to cause injury.”

“This is an extremely adversarial issue, and we are striving to calibrate the systems to effectively enforce the ban at all scales.”

Facebook says it has taken down hundreds of accounts and pages linked to Myanmar army personnel since 2018, after the New York Times reported that military officials were behind fake pages https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html inciting violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority, 700,000 fled an army crackdown in 2017, and a Reuters investigation https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-facebook-hate found Facebook was failing to police anti-Rohingya hate speech.

YouTube stated it had “terminated” 2 pro-military channels posing like news outlets. It also said it was monitoring “violative” content. TikTok claimed that it had “aggressively deleted” thousands more Myanmar accounts that violated its guidelines.

Twitter claimed it is vigilant against manipulation attempts. Telegram didn’t respond to our request for comment.

“INFORMATION WARFARE”

According to Nyi Thuta and Lin Htet Aung, the information combat drive will be coordinated by the Army’s Public Relations and Information Production Unit from Naypyidaw. They are known as Ka Ka Com and have hundreds of soldiers there.

Lin Htet Aung stated that Ka Ka Com can give information on a person to military intelligence in the event they feel they need to be held or placed under ground surveillance.

The defectors claim that the central unit coordinates work by dozens smaller social media groups, which are located at different military commands and battalions throughout the country.

The military has imposed some temporary restrictions https://graphics.reuters.com/MYANMAR-POLITICS/INTERNET-RESTRICTION/rlgpdbreepo on the internet since the coup and banned https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-politics-facebook-focus-idUSKBN2A42RY the use of Facebook in February yet 20 million people in the country continued to use the platform in July, according to Facebook data. Research shows that this figure is lower than the 28 million recorded in January. However, many of these users were able to circumvent the ban through virtual private networks (VPNs).

Lin Htet Aung, Nyi Thuta, and Lin Htet Aung stated that soldiers who were monitoring for signs or trouble would be particularly alert for any rebellion among them to stop defections. These women said that “monitoring” teams were frequently manned in part by female soldiers. They aren’t allowed to take on combat roles.

According to two defectors and another military source, both before and after the coup soldiers and their families received instructions to inform the army about their social media accounts. They were also warned to not post any content that was critical of Aung San Suu Kyi or supporting the junta, and they were also told to notify their families.

Nyi Thuta claimed that he was among the victims of cyberattacks against him and the other soldiers who had left the army.

Reuters looked at two Telegram group with thousands of soldiers. The Telegram group shared names, photos, and social media information of those they thought to be watermelons, pro-military outside, but secretly supporting Aung San Suu Kyi (whose party colors are red).

Lin Htet Aung as well Nyi Thuta claimed they quit the army to protest the coup. Lin Htet Aung currently trains rebel forces in Myanmar.

Nyi Thuta declined to give his exact location but said that he created People’s Soldiers, an online organization to support military personnel who want to defect. This group has more than a quarter-million followers on Facebook and estimates that 2,000 soldiers defected from the country since the coup. Reuters could not confirm this figure. 

    “I’m using the information warfare tactics I learned in the army against them,” he said.