Telecoms Face Scrutiny as Internet Freedom Battles Continue
Monitoring orgs · 21.09.2026

Norway has launched an investigation against Telenor on suspicion of crimes against humanity — yes, that's not a typo. The complaint concerns the company's exit from Myanmar after the 2021 military coup: it was filed by Justice for Myanmar and ICJ Norway, in addition to a collective lawsuit filed earlier this year by the Swedish Justice and Accountability Initiative with support from Myanmar civil society. A telecom that simply "left the market" is now explaining itself to investigators. Apparently, exiting a country can also be an act you're held accountable for.

Speaking of telecoms and accountability: MTN owns just 49% of MTN-Irancell and formally "does not control operations" in Iran. But human rights advocates, including a representative from Ranking Digital Rights, point out: lack of control doesn't mean lack of responsibility. CircuitBreakr will soon share more details on how MTN's senior manager for digital rights responded to this.

Meanwhile, Turkey is cleaning house on X: dozens of accounts belonging to human rights organizations, journalists, and LGBT activists have been blocked, including the MLSA lawyers association and the Mor Dayanışma organization. The decision came via court order, as tracked by Turkish monitoring group Engelliweb. Blocking lawyers through the courts — how very Turkish of them.

Pakistani-administered Kashmir holds an unfortunate record: internet access has been severely restricted for over 100 days now, according to NetBlocks.

In Equatorial Guinea, internet speeds have been throttled since September 2, with Facebook and TikTok blocked without a VPN. The trigger was a video accusing Vice President Teodorín Nguema Obiang of corruption. The woman who posted the video was arrested. It's an age-old pattern: inconvenient video — blackout — arrest.

There's good news too: since September 16, Venezuela has started unblocking news sites that had been shut down for years. Sometimes censorship does retreat — not out of goodwill, but in spite of it.

Source: https://www.circuitbreakr.org/crimes-against-humanity-myanmar-telenor-investigation