Digital Rights: 4th Edition Of Forum Held In Yangon

The 4th Myanmar Digital Rights Forum 2020 to explore role of data and tech in coming elections began in Yangon on 28th February.

The 2-day forum was jointly organized by Phandeeyar, Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO), Myanmar Center for responsible Business (MCRB) and Free Expression Myanmar (FEM).

The forum has been annually held since 2016, and this year's forum aims to set the digital agenda in the country for the election year.

The Myanmar Digital Rights Forum which is becoming an annual mainstay for the digital rights movement in Myanmar and is envisioned as the cornerstone of Myanmar’s digital rights advocacy effort.

Senior Manager, Digital Rights Program (Phandeeyar), Wai Phyo Myint said “With a significant growth of mobile and internet usage in Myanmar, internet and digitization of public and private services have become a major part of many people’s lives in Myanmar. At the same time, it has many impacts on human rights. That’s why we organized such kind of forums to raise awareness on the understanding of the digital rights among the public and to protect the rights in cooperation with the government and private sectors.”

About 150 representatives from CSOs, journalist, business leaders, policymakers, academics and government discussed a wide range of topics on Digital Culture, Digital Risks and Rights-based internet.

They also seek collective answers to potential and actual impacts of technologies on society and human right in Myanmar.

Executive Director, MIDO, Htike Htike Aung said “One of the topics I’m going to discuss is the Digital Risks for Myanmar Elections which mainly highlights on the hate speech, digital security, propaganda and fake news on the social media. This topic also aims to have awareness on the media and information literacy to the public, how to scrutinize the news which is true or fake on social platforms during the election.”

It’s learnt that key topics for the Forum 2020 were built on the outcomes of the previous three forums and their milestones on three main themes.