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Paper short abstract

Even under a semi-civilian government in 20, Myanmar activists faced digital surveillance. Digital rights activists countered this with their own monitoring while balancing it with accountability. The paper addresses their struggles to remain accountable within and beyond seeing one another.

Paper long abstract

The years 2011-2021, before Myanmar’s military started a new coup to steer the country’s politics more directly, are often associated with liberalisation. Yet, people were hiding from “special branch”, a section of the police. The semi-civilian government in power after 2015 established a social media monitoring group which sat in an ambiguous position, keeping their eyes on alleged hate speech as well as allegedly engaging in surveillance.

Digital rights activists likewise engaged in monitoring during this time. Some wanted to unmask government agents and “bad actors” in online spaces. Others wanted to see those actors without being seen by them. Both saw the need to be accountable to one another, particularly amongst the activists. Even though they engaged in techniques not too different from policing, they imagined a co-operative way of working together.

This paper explores their ways of seeing, feeling and grasping what it means to be responsible to one another in a dual setting which took sight as the guide to knowledge, namely both surveillance practices and social scientific knowledge production. It tells of their failures to talk to one another but also how they kept considerate silence to keep their relations safe and free.