Misleading online articles suggest Myanmar satellite will provide free internet access to citizens
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 19, 2020 at 08:45
- 2 min read
- By AFP Myanmar
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The claim was published on a website in Burmese here.
The title of the first misleading post translates to English as: “Big plan in the works for all Myanmar citizens to get free phone internet".
Following that title, the article states in part: “Myanmar is going to launch its own satellite using Japan’s technology. The satellite will be built by Myanmar engineers and launched into orbit with the help of the University of Hokkaido and Tohoku University. The satellite will be used for agricultural and environmental monitoring purposes.”
A similar claim was also published in articles here and here.
The articles were also published here and here on Facebook on June 13, 2020. The posts were shared hundreds of times.
The claim is false. In an interview on June 15, Dr. Kyi Thwin, Rector of Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University, told AFP: “The satellite will not give any internet access to people because what we are going to build is a micro satellite that will only give us images. It is not a communications satellite.”
Dr. Kyi Thwin said the satellite will be used to take satellite images for urban planning, transportation, weather forecasting, and agriculture purposes.
The misleading articles referenced this article by Japanese news site Nikkei Asian Review, but failed to accurately report the details in the article.
The Nikkei Asian Review article states Myanmar’s first satellite will be launched in 2021 with the help of Japan's Hokkaido University and Tohoku University. The article does not, however, suggest the satellite will give free internet access to Myanmar citizens.
The report published by Nikkei Asia Review reads in part: “The satellite will be an earth observation satellite, which will be used to raise productivity in agriculture, as well as to prevent and reduce damage from disasters and monitor environmental pollution, Yukihiro Takahashi, a professor at Hokkaido University and director of the university's Space Mission Center, told Nikkei.”
The article also says “graduate students from Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University, a national university in Myanmar, will come to Japan” and “develop two satellites over five years and learn to analyse satellite data”.
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