regime. Inside the country, millions have joined street protests over the past month.
The March 3 post argues that both Ma Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing – the first protester known to die at
the hands of security forces, in Nay Pyi Taw – and Kyal Sin were both killed by unnamed third parties.
Not only is there no evidence to support this, there is much evidence to suggest security forces were
responsible.
The post is thinly sourced. It claims “Mandalay-based journalists” verified that a “third group” killed
Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, but no such reporting can be found. The Tatmadaw said police used only
rubber bullets to fire on protesters that day in Nay Pyi Taw, despite doctors confirming she was killed
by a live round and a video clip showing the moment she was shot, not far from where a line of police
were spraying protesters with water cannon.
The March 3 post is attributed to “Radio Free Myanmar”, a known disinformation network that
frequently spreads anti-NLD as well as anti-Muslim content.
Other posts pushed the narrative that Kyal Sin was killed by another protester in the crowd, claiming
a small pen gun that can fire one bullet at a time was used. This post, with over 10,000 shares and
5,700 reactions, purports to show the pen gun and ammunition for it, but there is no evidence linking
the weapon to Kyal Sin’s death.
An account called Nay Zin Latt has been credited by many other Facebook users as the original poster
of a picture of a single-shot pen gun. Nay Zin Latt’s original post was shared over 2,000 times and
copied and pasted by many other users. One of these copy-paste posts was eventually also shared by
Daw Than Than Aye, an account with over 43,000 followers that claims to be a legal advisor for the
pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party. Frontier could not confirm her identity.
An account called Aung San Kyaw, whose cover photos features Min Aung Hlaing, also posted soon
after 10pm on March 4, targeting Muslim NLD lawmaker U Sithu Maung. The post claimed a picture
of a man with a gun was Sithu Maung and that he had received explosives training from the ABSDF.
Meanwhile, on TikTok, a video claimed that a protester standing behind Kyal Sin was coordinating
with third-party snipers in order to have her killed. The clip had over 44,000 reactions before it went
private.
Ko Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, said his organisation
had seen no evidence that any party other than the security forces were responsible for deaths of
civilian protesters. He has, however, seen credible evidence of military snipers at protests.
It’s worth pointing out that far more content has spread on Facebook and TikTok memorialising Kyal
Sin and explicitly condemning security forces for killing her. This post, by Burmese-American mixed
martial artists Aung La Nsang, has over 14,000 shares and over 87,000 reactions, far more than any of
the disinformation posts viewed by Frontier.
“It wasn’t a stray bullet that killed her but a precise head shot,” he wrote, blaming a “military sniper’.
Bo Kyi said the disinformation has likely been ineffective in convincing the general population.
“[The] military always lies,” he said, “and people do not believe it.”
He condemned the reported removal of Kyal Sin’s body, and said that even if the military does
undertake an investigation into her death, it won’t be reliable.
“If the military did forcibly exhume Kyal Sin’s body without permission, it is a crime,” he said. “
“We need an independent investigation for alleged human rights violations committed by military
police and soldiers all across Myanmar,” he said.