Blackouts, whitelists, and 'terrorist others': The role of socio-technical imaginaries in Myanmar

For its February 2021 coup, the military blacked out mobile internet across Myanmar. Often interpreted as an ad-hoc measure to crush a digitally savvy protest and resistance movement, I propose instead to think blackouts as co-existing practices of connecting and disconnecting that emerged before the coup. Focusing on the role of mobile internet in state formation, this article shows how digital technologies became involved in performing (state) authority in Myanmar: They co-produced both a unifying socio-technical imaginary that glossed over conflicts, and 'terrorist others' that are to be disconnected - thus shaping two conflicting statebuilding projects within post-coup Myanmar.