Dancing soldiers on TikTok and warfare on Telegram: The new normal of the Burmese military’s digital influence

Five years after Myanmar’s military coup, a scene that once would have seemed surreal has become routine: soldiers in full uniform dance to propaganda songs on TikTok, racking up tens of thousands of likes. What appears to be harmless entertainment is, in fact, the latest face of an authoritarian project that has killed at least 7,761 people, displaced millions, and is now extending its reach into every corner of the country’s digital life. Myanmar’s experience is not an isolated tragedy. It is an accelerating template, and one already being studied and replicated by authoritarian regimes worldwide.