any action may be used as exactly the excuse needed to crack down and tighten control. This marked the beginning of what has come to be an unprecedented level of political engagement online by youth across the country. In the weeks and months that proceeded, hundreds of thousands of civilians began participating in street protests and acts of civil disobedience - the face of youth engagement online was changed. A resistance movement of national proportions ensued, and messaging platforms now served as a means to coordinate actions and continue momentum. A flurry of anti-coup artwork emerged across Facebook and Instagram feeds, hashtag campaign established on Twitter and youth took to platform after platform — including Bridgefy, Telegram, Signal and Google Maps to name a few — in order to exercise the energy of the moment and help it grow. Government bans of social media sites soon censored the growing popularity of hashtags such as #WhatshappeninginMyanmar #voiceoutfordemocracy and #savemyanmar. “Before February I didn’t usually post – but after the coup I tried to speak out as much as possible, I used Facebook every day to speak out about the political situation in the country. I give likes to those that I know and comments under the posts of people I know. After the coup I mostly share things about the revolution. My engagement is more since the coup and mainly about the political situation.” (FGD_01) The online space has essentially become a parallel battlefield in which the country’s military and its opponents try to rally supporters, share information and control the narrative around the unfolding events in the country (International Crisis Group, 2021). This virtual struggle has been vitally important to both sides. The scale of popular anger at the military, and to a smaller extent the policies of social media companies have presented significant challenges to military control. Discussing ongoing interactions between civilians and military personnel and supporters, one participant explained that these are often unpleasant and redundant at best: 4.3.5 Social Punishment, Hate Speech and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Social Punishment “Military supporters on Twitter, they will scream at you and post porn” (KII_01) (Female) This comment highlights the unpleasantness of such encounters but also points to the widespread use of fake porn and violent misogynistic imagery to marginalize particularly and threaten female activists. Digital rights monitors and journalists have identified disturbingly high numbers of videos on TikTok (Ewe & Diamond, 2021) posted by soldiers threatening violence and death in response to anti-coup activity (Reuters, 2021). Facebook (Frankel, 2021), TikTok (Lyons, 2021) and YouTube (Castronuovo, 2021) have vowed to remove propaganda, violence and misinformation published online by the military, and have banned various military controlled accounts, but have not addressed the issues with the underlying algorithms that boost and amplify hateful content. Personal accounts of soldiers remain, and the military has reportedly used ’Deepfake’ manipulated videos in attempt to cause uncertainty and undermine public ability to discern the truth. ‘Social punishment’ began shortly following the coup as the doxing of military personnel, their families, so called cronies, and members of the public who either side with, or do not side against the military. In its simplest and most organized form, it involves revealing information about people and businesses affiliated with the military, in attempt to apply social and economic pressure through boycotts on business and brands, as well to engage in social shaming. Websites, applications, and social media pages were set up by anonymous activists, listing businesses and individuals associated with the military, their images, their locations and what they are being called out for. On some social punishment platforms, offenders were ranked by their ‘traitor level’ (low, to elite) depending on how wrongful their associations are deemed to be (McMichael, 2021). “In my understanding, social punishment is like shaming the people who perpetrated the violence on the people and sending a signal to the next generation of those perpetrators and to isolate them from society. That’s why I engage with it, always, and actively urge others to do the same.” (FGD_01) Social punishment echoes a long-standing division between the military and civil society which has only deepened over the years with the spread of social media, which has allowed people to witness military families prosper (through information and images of their glamourous lifestyles circulating online), alongside the ruthlessness and violence of Tatmadaw. 31