Tue Oct 07 12:30:26 UTC 2025: **News Article:**
**Myanmar Activists to Sue Telenor, Alleging Data Shared with Military Led to Repression**
THE HAGUE – A group of Myanmar civil society organizations is preparing to sue Norwegian telecommunications giant Telenor, accusing the company of handing over customer data to the country’s military junta following the 2021 coup. The activists claim this data was then used to track, target, and repress anti-coup activists, leading to torture, imprisonment, and even execution.
Backed by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), the claimants allege that Telenor, majority-owned by the Norwegian government, disclosed data from millions of customers, enabling the military to identify and persecute dissenters.
“We were in danger… But Telenor did not protect us. On the contrary. Our data was used as a weapon against us,” said Ko Ye, one of the claimants. Another claimant, Thazin Nyunt Aung, expressed shock at the disclosures, which occurred shortly before her husband, lawmaker Phoe Zeya Thaw, was arrested and later executed.
According to Jan Magne Langseth, the claimants’ lawyer, Telenor “should never have handed over this information” and must be held accountable. He further stated that Telenor should have deleted sensitive data before selling its Myanmar operations in 2021 to M1 Group and Shwe Byain Phyu, a local conglomerate with ties to the military.
Telenor, which has faced scrutiny over its actions in Myanmar, maintains that it was caught in an impossible situation. In a statement to Reuters, the company said that it faced “a terrible and tragic situation” after the coup, and that disobeying the military government’s orders would have been “perceived as terrorism and sabotage, and would have put employees in direct danger.”
“Like all operators in any country, Telenor Myanmar was legally required to provide traffic data to the authorities,” the company added.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the 2021 coup, with the military crackdown resulting in widespread violence and a nationwide armed rebellion. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military has killed nearly 7,000 people and arrested almost 30,000. The military denies targeting civilians. This lawsuit raises serious questions about the ethical responsibilities of multinational corporations operating in authoritarian regimes.
First Piper 