Contribution short abstract:

Since before the ongoing coup, Myanmar digital rights activists have drawn out the politics of social media platforms while also trying to prefigure a new way of being political across entrenched divides. I show the interactions between formal platform politics and political activism.

Contribution long abstract:

Access to digital networks has spelled both a lifeline and an avenue for surveillance to Myanmar digital rights activists. Online spaces have allowed activists both before and after the coup started in 2021 to stay connected with one another and build a network for their political work. Holding social media companies to account for the way they build and moderate online spaces, the activists also try to prefigure accountability amongst themselves. They themselves shied away from calling their work political because the term implies personal interests and entrenched division where they seek to build common ground.

In their political activities, the politics of those activists is personal insofar as their interactions and how they deal with one another in responsible ways has been extensively commented and acted upon. Yet, they have also had to deal with various state actors who engage them openly and clandestinely. To know and educate them has been a major goal before the coup started in 2021. They have had to act in an environment where political self-organisation has been claimed by various groups across the country. Beyond those formal actirs, there have also been companies, particularly social media platforms, that have regulated common spaces, for which digital rights activists have tried to hold them to account. I show how those ways of being political interact with one another.