A Chinese company made the mass-surveillance technology and European countries funded the Myanmar Internet company that installed it.
Finance Uncovered reports that an investigation it conducted with Myanmar Now learned “that Frontiir has installed equipment capable of tracking people online, blocking websites and preventing people from using virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow users to sidestep censorship controls” (May 21, 2025).
The maker of the equipment is Geedge Networks, a cyber firm founded “by the so-called father of China’s Great Firewall, Fang Binxing” (shown above).
Another thing: “the governments of the UK, Norway and Denmark [injected] $40 million into Frontiir through their international development funds in return for shares in the company.”
Documents leaked to Justice for Myanmar in 2024 show that the Myanmar junta had gotten hold of Geedge’s gizmos, capable of doing all the standard Chinese Great Wall censorship and surveillance of sites and communications on the Internet: intercepting, blocking, decrypting.
Myanmar’s military has waged an unrelenting crackdown on digital freedom since it seized power more than four years ago, sparking a brutal civil war that has seen thousands of people killed and millions displaced.
Since the February 2021 coup, human rights observers say nearly 2,000 people have been arrested for criticising the junta online, or posting support for anti-regime groups.
In September 2021, Norwegian telecommunication provider Telenor announced it was withdrawing from Myanmar because of the junta’s demands that it activate a “lawful interception” system. Telenor said cooperating in such a way would violate Norwegian and international sanctions.
A former Telenor employee told reporters they believed it would be “impossible” for an ISP to operate in Myanmar today and not allow authorities access to information on its users.
A spokesman for Frontiir says the company never developed anything “related to surveillance.” Any claims to the contrary are “completely false.”
The UK’s development fund, British International Investments, has invested $26 million into Frontiir’s Singapore parent company. Norfund also invested 26.9 million Norwegian krone ($3 million) and Denmark’s IFU spent 70.1 million Danish krone ($10.5 million) on Frontiir shares….
Pressed about FU and MN’s findings, BII, Norfund and IFU said they had received assurances from Frontiir that its network has never been used by Myanmar authorities to intercept or decrypt communications. All of them emphasized that Frontiir was a key provider of low-cost internet services, saying they had no plans to sell their shares.
“Divesting our stake in Frontiir would be bad for the company and bad for the people in Myanmar,” said a spokesman for BII.
You can’t stop China or any tyranny if you don’t try.
Also see:
South China Morning Post: “Myanmar junta’s drones from China, Russia tilt balance of war against resistance forces”
