Myanmar ‘traitors’ hounded online

As Myanmar descends into chaos, smartphone warriors in the anti-coup movement are seeking revenge online against the junta, hounding people with family ties to the military as a form of "social punishment". 

The country has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February and the death toll from the violence has risen past 500 as the junta struggles to quash dissent.

Anger and grief over the crackdown are being channelled into an online campaign, with close to 170 people with relatives in the junta listed on a website as "traitors".

The site and a corresponding Facebook page -- which had 67,000 followers before it was shut down -- detail the personal information of these people, such as workplaces, universities and links to their social media accounts -- a practice known as doxxing.

"We are here to punish families of the military or the people who are supporting the military. Never forgive, never forget!" the Facebook page said.

Facebook closed down the page for violating community standards, but other pages with smaller numbers of followers still exist.

The consequences of social punishment have resulted in some victims being forced to shut down their online businesses and a Myanmar university student in Japan quitting her studies, according to local media reports.

The campaign is broader in scope than those with family ties to the military -- people not participating in the civil disobedience strike action are also being targeted and threats have been made to journalists who cover the junta's press conferences.

Among those targeted is the doctor son of a senior minister, who later went on television to renounce his father.

The attacks on people with junta links are also being spread on Twitter.

The "with us or against us" mentality is also being pushed by a group of ousted MPs from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), who have been working underground against the junta.

The Committee for Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw has warned in a statement that "serious action" would be taken against those who are not part of the protest movement.

The tactic is not unique to Myanmar -- during the Hong Kong political protests in 2019 doxxing was commonly used by both sides.

There have been isolated reports of the social punishment campaign spilling over into the physical world, with some people in Myanmar having their eyebrows and hair shaved off by anti-coup protesters, according to multiple social media posts.