Norwegian telecom giant Telenor has faced criticism for its alleged role in aiding the Myanmar junta’s crackdown on activists following the 2021 military coup.
The class-action lawsuit was filed against Telenor on April 8 by the Swedish rights organization Justice and Accountability Initiative (JAI) with support from the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations and the Open Society Justice Initiative, representing 1,253 customers.
The plaintiffs claim that Telenor failed to protect users or even warn them that their data was being shared, despite an internal assessment showing that the orders could have led to arrests. The lawsuit seeks at least €11 million (£9.6m).
According to the allegations, Telenor complied with 96 percent of the junta’s data requests, providing historical metadata including addresses and last known locations. The data also includes information on ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and slain former MP Phyo Zeya Thaw.
“Telenor went into the country saying you should trust us – they did and that trust was broken and they suffered serious consequences. Even people who were not physically harmed, had to go underground, had to flee,” said Joseph Wilde-Ramsing, SOMO’s advocacy director.
Responding to these allegations, Telenor claimed that refusing the orders could have put the lives of their local employees at risk.
A Telenor spokesperson explained, “Our employees were working in extremely difficult and uncertain conditions, with direct pressure from the authorities and a highly unstable security situation. We could not take risks with the safety of our employees – their lives were at risk.”
The telecom company has rejected allegations of a link between data handling and specific human rights violations, also arguing that it is legally obliged to share the metadata.
