Europe’s export of cybersurveillance technology: impacts on Myanmar’s civil society

This contribution aimed to examine the critical issues related to the export of cybersurveil-lance technologies by some European Union companies to Myanmar, a country with a history of insta-bility and geopolitical tensions that have been exacerbated since the military coup of 2021. Non-govern-mental organizations operating in the country, in addition to humanitarian and development assistance,play a crucial role in the evolution of civil society, and, also thanks to some of them, it has been possibleto find out some irregularities in the export of dual-use goods that may causesocial impacts and infringe on the freedoms of Burmese civil society.Through a qualitative analysis of the literature, the main EU regulations, andrelated NGOs documents, the research uncovered some regulatory loopholesthat allowed such exports while examining the practices of some Europeancompanies in Burma.The work carried out confirmed the need for stricter regulation: in this sense,the European Commission’s recent Delegated Reg-ulation 2023/66 aims to ensure more effective con-trol over this type of export by preventing the mis-use of surveillance technology and promotinggreater accountability of companies operating inauthoritarian contexts.