Image courtesty of Myanmar Internet Project
In the wake of the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, Telenor – the country’s Norwegian-based telecommunications provider at the time – has become the focus of a groundbreaking corporate accountability case for digital rights. APC member Myanmar Internet Project (MIP), along with other civil society organisations and individuals, have undertaken legal action against Telenor in Norwegian courts where the company is based, challenging the company’s role in disclosing sensitive personal data to the military junta.
The case arises from what has been described as a systematic handover of vast amounts of user information and metadata from Telenor’s 18 million customers in Myanmar before its exit in 2022. This data, MIP and partners assert, was used by the regime to trace, arrest, torture and, in some cases, execute political opponents and human rights defenders.
This legal action follows both a formal complaint filed in 2021 with the Norwegian National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct (NCP) under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines, and a subsequent filing with the Norwegian police for alleged sanctions violations under the country’s Myanmar Regulation.
For MIP and its partners, the shift to civil litigation marks a critical turning point. The process has been long and draining, but the move to a legally binding lawsuit reflects the belief that moral pressure alone has not been sufficient. The pre-action letter sent in October 2025 formally notified Telenor that the partners will seek damages for harm suffered as a result of the data disclosures, including arbitrary detention, torture and extrajudicial killings. This is not only about accountability for past abuses, but about setting a precedent for how corporations operating in conflict-affected or authoritarian contexts must conduct “responsible disengagement.”
MIP sees the case as a collective act of resistance and a demand that companies must not abandon their obligations to human rights in favour of business interests. The aim is to alert the international community to the serious dangers of telecoms data sharing under repressive regimes, and to safeguard digital rights for those whose lives may be at risk. The outcome of this important legal battle has the potential to significantly influence corporate norms. For civil society organisations and digital rights defenders from Myanmar, it offers a message of hope in an atmosphere of fear and repression.
Htaike Htaike Aung, director of Myanmar Internet Project, spoke to APC about the legal processes currently underway and their significance for activists in Myanmar and globally.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How did Myanmar Internet Project (MIP) come to be involved in legal proceedings in support of telecoms users whose data was compromised?
The military coup in Myanmar started in February 2021 and by around May or June, Telenor had announced its intention to sell their company in Myanmar and exit the market. At that time, a lot of human right defenders were concerned because that was when we were going out in the streets and doing a lot of protesting and demonstrations. Human rights defenders, journalists, a lot of us were using Telenor because we believed that compared to other telecoms companies in Myanmar, it had a good reputation coming from a Norwegian background and also had historical records of being transparent on issues that are related to their business practises in the country.
So when Telenor announced that they wanted to sell and leave Myanmar, we were concerned that we would not have a telecom operator and internet service provider who we could trust. At the same time, we were concerned to whom they were going to sell and whether the buyer was going to be close to the military. We did a lot of protests with on-the-ground groups to push for no sale, but in the end Telenor sold to a company that is really close to the military.
At that time, in July 2021, 474 Myanmar civil societies organisations filed a complaint to the OECD Norwegian National Contact Point about Telenor's decision to sell its Myanmar business and that it failed to meet the standards of responsible disengagement set out in the OECD guidelines. Beyond the formal complaint process, MIP also engaged in initial advocacy efforts to push Telenor to reconsider its sale. We participated in several public campaigns and drafted statements and briefs to various Norwegian authorities, including the prime minister. Originally over 400 civil society groups invited Telenor to a mediation before the sale, but the sale went through before the mediation so there was not a lot we could do.
In 2022 we had a three-day face-to-race mediation meeting in Stockholm with Telenor HQ people and representatives of the complainant. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) that came up from the mediation highlights what Telenor can provide as a remedy for their disengagement to civil society, mostly to fund digital risk mitigation efforts. We were really thinking about whether we should put a number on that because we don't want to be about money, but at the same time we had to acknowledge that by 2022-2023, a lot of emergency support previously provided to the country had decreased, so there is a need for things like safe houses and burner devices to provide emergency support for activists and journalists. We therefore asked for a symbolic number: if Telenor is going to pay, they have to fund 18 million dollars for risk mitigation because when they left, they had 18 million users in Myanmar.
That OECD complaint that started in 2021 is about to be to finalised and we are finishing up our closing statements. It might be unsuccessful because Telenor would have to acknowledge the harm that they have caused and contribute to the digital risk fund, which is highly unlikely to happen.
MIP and partners have recently launched an important legal case against Telenor by bringing this matter to the courts. What is the significance of this action?
The Telenor saga in Myanmar has not ended because the OECD complaint is not legally binding. In October 2025, we decided that we also need to pursue a legal route in the Norwegian courts, so we sent a pre-action letter to formally notify Telenor that we, the claimants, intend to file a lawsuit in Norway. MIP is one of the claimants along with another organisation called Defend Democracy Myanmar and an individual who is the partner of a deceased high-profile democracy activist and politician from Myanmar who was sentenced by the military. Based on an investigation that came out of Norwegian media, we believe that his number was in the list that Telenor had given out to the military when they were requesting data on certain phone numbers.
Telenor have responded that they will throw lawyers and resources at our case from their side, so it looks like a struggle between like David and Goliath, with Telenor being a company with many resources and us trying to sue them.
We want the international community to see the risks of disengaging in a conflict context, and to increase awareness around digital rights. The legal case is going to be legally binding, and Telenor will have to compensate for the harm that they have caused. In terms of remedy, it's much more significant and concrete.
What challenges do you anticipate as this case moves forward?
The challenge we have is that this is a very lengthy process. It started in 2021 and is still ongoing, with processes happening in parallel. It's exhausting for civil societies groups like us to be engaged in it for that long.
From the OECD complaint, we have not succeeded in providing financial compensations to individuals, but we believe that we highlighted the harm done and its impact. We believe that financial compensation would bring change on an individual level, but we also consider these as acts of resistance and standing up for the rights of 18 million users in Myanmar. This will bring psychological benefits to people by showing them they have a voice.
Is there anything from experience that you would share with other groups who might be considering taking on similar legal battles?
Sustaining a long effort is very tiring, but we have multiple committed partner organisations with different expertise working together to help, which allows for specialisation and division of work. This setup really helps us carry the case forward and deal with frustrations as well. We have protest groups and digital rights groups on the ground, we have the business and human rights folks that help us, and we have people who are experts in the OECD complaint. Having this support and multiple connected partners is key.
Another important thing is documentation. We have documented in detail where people who were arrested were located, the kind of phones and SIMs they were using, the period between them receiving a call and then being arrested, etc. So we do have documentation, but we wish we had more documentation to really help us in our cases by having hard evidences.
What is the next major milestone ahead of you in these proceedings?
For the legal case, we have sent the pre-action letter and then we will be sending our formal complaint to the courts in Norway. That's going to be another big milestone and we hope to do it around Christmas. After that, the court will be talking with witnesses and victims.
We still don't know whether we will succeed or not, but I think the act of resistance that we are showing is already a win.