The Role of the Internet in Burma’s Saffron Revolution

TLDR

The 2007 Saffron Revolution in Burma was an unprecedented intersection of politics and technology, marked by a government‑controlled internet blackout that limited information flow yet remained an example of an internet‑driven protest that did not yield tangible political change, illustrating the complex interaction between domestic eyewitnesses and a global networked public sphere. The study examines the root causes, progress, and outcomes of the Saffron Revolution to parse the extent to which technology may have played a useful or detrimental role. The authors conduct a case study analysis of the revolution, reviewing its root causes, progress, and outcomes to assess technology's influence on the unfolding events. The study proposes initial hypotheses on the protests' long‑term impact and the Internet's role in highly authoritarian states.

Abstract

The 2007 Saffron Revolution in Burma was in many ways an unprecedented event in the intersection between politics and technology. There is, of course, the obvious: the event marks a rare instance in which a government leveraged control of nationalized ISPs to entirely black out Internet access to prevent images and information about the protests from reaching the outside world. At another level, it is an example of an Internet driven protest which did not lead to tangible political change. On deeper reflection it is also of interest because of the complex interaction between eyewitnesses within the country and a networked public sphere of bloggers, student activists, and governments around the globe. To that end, this case study examines the root causes, progress, and outcomes of the Saffron Revolution and attempts to parse out the extent to which technology may have played a useful or detrimental role in the unfolding of events. The case concludes with some initial hypotheses about the long-term impact of the protests and the role of the Internet in highly authoritarian states.