“This is how punishment has worked in Myanmar, especially under Junta rule, and the Junta is doing the exact same thing on a much larger and far more violent scale. If an NLD member is wanted and they can’t find him, they’ll take his 4-year-old. Family members of targets are seen as fair game and that’s always been true for decades and this is what punishment looks like for people. This is how you enact power and get your side to win. This is a legacy of that practice.” (KII_01) Social media and online activism have become a highly utilized weapon in fighting the junta, but ethical concerns about some of these tactics have raised important questions around FoE. For instance, one FGD participant revealed they had never been an instigator of hate speech before, but that since the coup, expressed a desire to direct such language at those on the military side. (FGD_07) “It’s hard to not do hate speech, for me right now, because I have a lot of emotions, I’m seeing the news daily, seeing what’s going on with us, with people, so freedom of speech is a different thing for me right now because of the coup. Before I wouldn’t judge, swear or practice hate speech online, but I think I live that differently now.” (FGD_07) (Female) Social punishment has emerged as a tool against the military and their supporters and people are willing to go to any extent possible to make it successful. 32 Hate Speech Hate Speech can be described as “Violent or dehumanizing speech that calls for exclusion or segregation or incitement to violence against, or discrimination against individuals or groups based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious or political affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, or disability” (Burma Monitor, Progressive Voice & International Human Right Clinic at Harvard Law School, 2020). Facebook, the main social media platform in the country, has played the most significant role in disseminating hateful content and has come under much criticism in recent years for acting as a space where “extremist discourse can thrive; human rights violations are legitimized and incitement to discrimination and violence are facilitated” (UNOHCHR, 2018). In recent years, those benefiting from division and conflict in society, including the military and ultranationalist groups have been using Facebook to gain political influence by strategically inciting violence through the spreading of hate speech and misinformation. Hateful rhetoric, fake news, graphic images, and propaganda videos have long been created to be liked, shared and set the stage for inflammatory discourse. Referring to images of dead soldiers posted in recent months and the ‘positive’ reactions of people several participants – who in other respects espouse human rights and democratic values - expressed a sense of achievement or success. “When I see dead bodies of military and soldiers, for me I give a heart reaction to that photo and see the same from so many others. But for the families of this soldier or police it can be counted as online violence – but we are happy about it and to see the dead bodies of those people. In some case people don’t want to see that and are not comfortable, but still try to give a heart reaction.” (FGD_01) (Female) “I am happy they were killed. Most people writing (comments) are angry they are not normal they have been mentally or physically abused by the military. I think they were mentally sick.” (KII_03) The military coup has stimulated a surge in hate speech that has been identified by participants as problematic – though potentially useful – and social punishment has come to include any form of anti-military speech or action, which for many, has become synonymous with hate speech. THERE IS ROOM FOR ERROR AND MISUSE “One example, there is an actor, he posted a post at the beginning of February and then disappeared from social media. I started to do social punishment to him, and eventually he reappeared in the liberated area, and now he has joined the fight against the Tatmadaw. I realized I didn’t have enough information about him when I did the social punishment, and it wasn’t fair because he was trying to join the revolutionary forces.” (FGD_01) “My cousin did social punishment because of personal issues, and to bring out people he didn’t really like, not because of the military.” (FGD_05) (Female)