Telenor is facing a class action lawsuit in Norway over the actions of its Myanmar subsidiary after the 2021 coup. The case alleges Telenor Myanmar passed phone data of more than 1,200 people to the country’s military junta.
The company, 54% owned by Norway’s government, withdrew from Myanmar as internal conflict intensified following the removal of a more civilian-led government under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The lawsuit, filed by Swedish non‑profit Justice and Accountability Initiative, says the shared data led to abuses including the 2022 execution of lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw and the arrest and jailing of civil society activist Aung Thu.
The claim seeks €9,000 (about $10,500) per customer whose data was shared. “If successful, this case would be the first ever to hold a telecoms company to account for not sufficiently protecting user data from access by an authoritarian regime,” said Beini Ye, legal counsel at the Open Society Justice Initiative, which is supporting the case.
Telenor says it was first informed the lawsuit was being prepared last October and maintains it was “legally required to provide traffic data to the authorities.” The company told Reuters and AFP that non‑compliance could have exposed its local employees to “imprisonment, torture or the death penalty.” “Telenor Myanmar was operating on the ground in a war zone,” the company said. “Telenor Myanmar had no real options. We could not play Russian roulette with the lives of our employees.” Telenor added it would be “terrible if data from Telenor had been misused by the authorities,” but said Myanmar’s junta bore sole responsibility for its treatment of citizens and that “neither Telenor nor any other civilian organization has that responsibility.”
Telenor won a government tender in 2013 and began operating in Myanmar in 2014, reaching more than 18 million customers by 2021. In January 2021 the military reclaimed power in a coup, triggering unrest and repression. With conflict intensifying, Telenor announced in June 2021 it intended to sell its subsidiary and completed its exit by March 2022.
The lawsuit alleges data released while Telenor still controlled operations led to abuses both before and after the company’s exit. Aung Thu, arrested in September 2021, told Reuters his information was among the data allegedly shared and said he hopes for justice “not just for myself, but for all the people of Myanmar.” Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former hip hop artist turned lawmaker, was hanged in 2022 along with other activists accused of terrorism; his wife, Tha Zin, said his death was “not just a wife losing her husband… it is also a loss to democracy.”
Edited by: Kieran Burke