“Telenor faces lawsuit for giving Myanmar junta customer data”, 8 April 2026

Telenor is facing a class action lawsuit in Norway over the actions of its subsidiary in Myanmar.

The case alleges that Telenor Myanmar passed phone data of more than 1,200 people to the country's military junta following the 2021 coup…

The class action lawsuit, filed by a Swedish non-profit called the Justice and Accountability Initiative, alleges that the company endangered customers by passing information on to the military government.

Among other things, it alleges that the data led to the 2022 execution of a prominent government opponent and lawmaker, Phyo Zeya Thaw, and the arrest and jailing of civil society activist Aung Thu.

The lawsuit claims Telenor is liable for €9,000 (roughly $10,500) ​per customer whose data was shared…

Telenor was first informed that the lawsuit was being prepared last October, and said at the time that it had been "legally required to provide traffic data to the authorities." 

It said in a statement to news agencies Reuters and AFP on Wednesday that non-compliance could have led to "imprisonment, torture or the death penalty," for its subsidiary's local employees. 

"Telenor Myanmar was operating on the ground in a war zone," it said. "Telenor Myanmar had no real options. We could not play Russian roulette with the lives of our employees." 

The company said that it would be "terrible if data from Telenor had been misused by the authorities," but it also said that Myanmar's junta bore sole responsibility for its treatment of its citizens and "neither Telenor nor any other civilian organization has that responsibility."…