# The government shuts mobile internet in parts of Rakhine and Chin

Date: 2019

## The fact

On 21 June 2019 Myanmar’s government shut mobile internet in several Rakhine and Chin townships during fighting with the Arakan Army, a completed blackout on Suu Kyi’s watch.

## Context

Ministry of Transport and Communications ordered. She was civilian head. A shutdown is still a dated [humanitarian-access](/drivers/humanitarian-access) and digital-rights cost.

Rakhine 2017 is a neighbouring earlier displacement row. ICJ 2019 is a neighbouring later legal row.

Myanmar’s State Counsellor (2016–2021) was de facto civilian head under the 2008 Constitution; she did not command the Tatmadaw’s autonomous ministries, write a Bangladeshi gazette, an ICJ merits judgment, or a 2026 [Min Aung Hlaing](/people/min-aung-hlaing) amnesty. She has been detained since 1 February 2021; as of August 2026 she is under house arrest after sentence commutations, not in office. A Nobel lecture is not a clearance-operation order. An ICJ appearance is not a personal genocide conviction. A junta court sentence is not a finding that every charge was true. Allegation of a stolen 2020 count is not stored as a completed steal. A Panglong speech is not a nationwide ceasefire. A Reuters conviction is not a completed finding that the journalists planted evidence. A 2026 ICRC visit is not a release.

## Evidence and sources

Ministry of Transport and Communications Myanmar carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is humanitarian access and digital rights: a completed conflict-zone blackout cuts reporting and aid coordination.

## What is established and what is not

Established: June 2019 mobile-internet shutdowns in Rakhine and Chin townships, independently reported, under her government.

Not established: that she authored every AA clash, or a unique later casualty coefficient from the outage hour.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

MOTC ordered. Telcos complied. AA and Tatmadaw fought.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies The government shuts mobile internet in parts of Rakhine and Chin, not a later speech about The government shuts mobile internet in parts of Rakhine and Chin.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. The government shuts mobile internet in parts of Rakhine and Chin on 2019-06-21 is not a licence to treat every later Ministry of Transport and Communications Myanmar communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average The government shuts mobile internet in parts of Rakhine and Chin into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to Cabinet backed the restriction. MOTC ordered. Telcos complied. AA and Tatmadaw fought. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Aung San Suu Kyi: https://factrail.ai/people/aung-san-suu-kyi

## Drivers

- Humanitarian Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/humanitarian-access
- Digital-Rights and Platform-Power Regulation: https://factrail.ai/drivers/tech-digital-rights-regulation

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-internet-idUSKCN1TM0K4
- https://www.motc.gov.mm/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/mm-suu-internet-2019