paths advertised by the Autonomous Systems (AS) corresponding to these ISPs,
recorded by Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) monitors of the RIPE project. 90 The outage
on MPT, the main government ISP, can be divided in two phases. Phase One of the
outage was a complete shutdown from September 29 to October 4. 91 The sole exception was one brief period of connectivity on October 1 for six hours starting at
6:35 p.m. Phase Two consisted of a regulated outage lasting all day except during the
period between approximately 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. each night from October 4
through October 12. On October 7, MPT had one extra period of connectivity from
9:40 a.m. to 3:37 p.m. In addition to Internet connectivity coinciding approximately
with the curfew period, 92 there is evidence that the Internet was also available from
around noon (starting anywhere between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.) until approximately 4:00 p.m. from October 9 to October 12. As of noon on October 13, MPT
appears to have resumed operation as a stable network with few changes in routing
paths.
The outage on BaganNet follows a similar pattern, with Phase One comprising a
complete shutdown from 7:00 p.m. on September 29 until 10:24 p.m. on the evening
of October 4, also with one exception. Phase Two comprises a regulated shutdown all
day from October 4 until October 9, except during the curfew period from 10:00 p.m.
to 4:00 a.m. As BaganNet’s Internet connectivity is established through MPT, it was
also up from October 9 through October 12 during the approximate curfew period as
well as for a period starting between 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. for a few hours daily.
Two long periods of connectivity thereafter, the first from 10:00 p.m. on October 12
to 4:04 a.m. on October 13 and the second from 12:05 p.m. on October 13 to 10:40
p.m. on October 15, were followed by one long outage, from 10:40 p.m. on October
15 to 9:00 a.m. on October 16. Throughout the outage, a small collection of preapproved Web sites on the country’s Intranet, known as the Myanmar Wide Web,
was unaffected.
Testing was conducted on MMT and MPT at various periods in 2008 and early 2009.
Both MMT and MPT continued to filter extensively and focused overwhelmingly on
independent media, political reform, human rights, and pornography sites relating
to Myanmar, as well as free Web-based e-mail services and circumvention tools. While
MMT blocks entire root domains, MPT is slightly more selective and only blocks specific pages of sensitive Web sites—MPT treated Blogspot and the Asia Observer this
way, blocking a number of URLs but not the root domain.
Both ISPs blocked approximately the same number of circumvention tools, including Proxify, Proxyweb, Guardster, and Proxyweb.net. Psiphon was inconsistently
blocked: it was filtered at one time during testing but was accessible at others.
In June 2006, Gmail and Google Talk were made inaccessible and Skype was
banned 93 —reportedly an attempt not only to censor communications but also to
preserve the government’s monopoly over telephone and e-mail services as MPT’s rev440
Burma
recorded by Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) monitors of the RIPE project. 90 The outage
on MPT, the main government ISP, can be divided in two phases. Phase One of the
outage was a complete shutdown from September 29 to October 4. 91 The sole exception was one brief period of connectivity on October 1 for six hours starting at
6:35 p.m. Phase Two consisted of a regulated outage lasting all day except during the
period between approximately 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. each night from October 4
through October 12. On October 7, MPT had one extra period of connectivity from
9:40 a.m. to 3:37 p.m. In addition to Internet connectivity coinciding approximately
with the curfew period, 92 there is evidence that the Internet was also available from
around noon (starting anywhere between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.) until approximately 4:00 p.m. from October 9 to October 12. As of noon on October 13, MPT
appears to have resumed operation as a stable network with few changes in routing
paths.
The outage on BaganNet follows a similar pattern, with Phase One comprising a
complete shutdown from 7:00 p.m. on September 29 until 10:24 p.m. on the evening
of October 4, also with one exception. Phase Two comprises a regulated shutdown all
day from October 4 until October 9, except during the curfew period from 10:00 p.m.
to 4:00 a.m. As BaganNet’s Internet connectivity is established through MPT, it was
also up from October 9 through October 12 during the approximate curfew period as
well as for a period starting between 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. for a few hours daily.
Two long periods of connectivity thereafter, the first from 10:00 p.m. on October 12
to 4:04 a.m. on October 13 and the second from 12:05 p.m. on October 13 to 10:40
p.m. on October 15, were followed by one long outage, from 10:40 p.m. on October
15 to 9:00 a.m. on October 16. Throughout the outage, a small collection of preapproved Web sites on the country’s Intranet, known as the Myanmar Wide Web,
was unaffected.
Testing was conducted on MMT and MPT at various periods in 2008 and early 2009.
Both MMT and MPT continued to filter extensively and focused overwhelmingly on
independent media, political reform, human rights, and pornography sites relating
to Myanmar, as well as free Web-based e-mail services and circumvention tools. While
MMT blocks entire root domains, MPT is slightly more selective and only blocks specific pages of sensitive Web sites—MPT treated Blogspot and the Asia Observer this
way, blocking a number of URLs but not the root domain.
Both ISPs blocked approximately the same number of circumvention tools, including Proxify, Proxyweb, Guardster, and Proxyweb.net. Psiphon was inconsistently
blocked: it was filtered at one time during testing but was accessible at others.
In June 2006, Gmail and Google Talk were made inaccessible and Skype was
banned 93 —reportedly an attempt not only to censor communications but also to
preserve the government’s monopoly over telephone and e-mail services as MPT’s rev440
Burma