More than a million people in Myanmar’s conflict-ridden Rakhine state have been plunged into an information blackout three days after authorities ordered telecommunications companies to stop providing internet services to the area. Rights groups have condemned the move as threat to civilians’ safety. The shutdown came with no warning on 21 June, one day after Myanmar’s ministry of transport and communications ordered four companies to temporarily suspend mobile internet services to nine townships in northern Rakhine state and southern Chin state.
