Not Your Body, Not Your Business (Maung Lwan-Wai, Bhone Maung, Yin Maung, and Zee Pe) examines the challenges faced by victims of non-consensual pornography in Myanmar. The study addresses the hesitation to approach the police due to the complex complaint registration process, and finds that institutional capacity to handle these cases remains limited. While social media platforms set conduct standards, the study highlights substantial challenges in protecting human rights and enforcing policies effectively.
Not your body, not your business: Decoding efforts to address non-consensual pornography in Myanmar’s digital space
By Maung Lwan-Wai, Bhone Maung, Yin Maung and Zee Pe
MYANMAR DIGITAL RESEARCH 09
Abstract
Non-consensual pornography has become a growing public concern worldwide, linked to the transformative growth in mobile phone penetration and internet access. Myanmar is no exception to this trend. Our research brings focus to an unspoken concern: this conversation: non-consensual pornography is a growing problem in Myanmar, further exacerbated by the
military coup. The research finds that civil society actions against non-consensual pornography are not as developed as needed, given the limited attention to the issue and the limited institutional capacity to address the problem. To address the issue, we should understand non-consensual pornography as part of the struggle for human rights and women’s rights. Seeing the issue through the lens of “human rights” rather than as a privacy issue or a “lack of digital literacy and security knowledge” is urgently needed in Myanmar, where a victim-blaming culture is engrained.
Keywords: non-consensual pornography; women’s rights; human rights; Myanmar.
This paper was produced for the Knowledge for Democracy Myanmar (K4DM) initiative, with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and with support from The SecDev Foundation. Views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of either organization.
The authors of this research paper are Myanmar citizens, all under 35, living both inside and outside the country.
They have used pseudonyms due to the risk environment in Myanmar.
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