Myanmar: Virtual revolution via Internet

Credit for this goes not to international media but to the efforts of hundreds of Myanmar’s citizens using the Internet and mobile phones to send first hand accounts, photographs and video footage to the rest of the world…this time technology is playing a crucial role in helping subvert the Myanmar government’s attempts to control the media meaning that the eyes of the world are on Myanmar and its oppressive regime like never before.

US Blasts Myanmar for Silencing Internet

The White House criticized Myanmar on Friday for cutting off Internet access and called on “all civilized nations” to pressure the military-run government to end its violent crackdown on protesters.

“They don’t want the world to see what is going on there,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said….(more)

Myanmar’s main Internet link not working: official

…Myanmar’s Internet service is tightly controlled and only sporadically available even in the best of times, but the military has tightened its controls amid anti-government protests.

In Bangkok, an official at a Thai telecom that provides satellite services to Myanmar also said some Internet service inside the country had been cut….

Myanmar: Internet Blocked

There have been massive support from Myanmar bloggers for the current protest activities, and the whole Myanmar blogosphere is overwhelmed with news and photos. Because of that, Myanmar Junta got chickened out and banned the political blogs, almost immediately followed by banning the whole blogger domain hence all other Myanmar blogs. A few bloggers tried to bypass proxy and blog using email-to-blog techniques….

Junta tries to shut down internet and phone links

The Burmese junta was last night desperately trying to shut down internet and telephone links to the outside world after a stream of blogs and mobile phone videos began capturing the dramatic events on the streets.

In the past 24 hours observers monitoring the flow of information have noticed a marked downturn, with the reported closure of cybercafes and the disconnection of mobile telephones.

Yes, but Myanmar is a Socialist nation, we’re all thinking…that could happen waaaay over there, but not here, in the west, where we have freedom of speech. You think? The methods may be different, but the results are the same. Check out these ongoing updates about internet censorship:

• FHK - resist! censorship
• 1389 Stop Blog Censorship
• GOV Modoggies
• Foehammer
• My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
• Burma or Myanmar: That’s not the question
• Real Citizen Journalism in Myanmar

Update - for Facebook users: Consider joining or supporting the “Support the Monks’ Protest in Burma” group. More info on Mashable.