How are lines drawn?
Participants were asked to reflect on what they
considered unacceptable, and where they draw
lines in their daily lives with regards to what
should or shouldn’t be said or done online.
“In my opinion we have to
take actions against those
responsible for crimes, but
for Myanmar’s situation we
cannot rely on legal mechanisms
anymore, so maybe in the
future we need to think about
accountability mechanisms to
punish those responsible for
the crimes. We should not use
social punishment as a tool
to punish those responsible.”
(FGD_02) (Male)
“The idea of social punishment
gives me many thoughts, for
example, a father commits
something, and that action can
impact the son. It can lead to
an eye for an eye act. They
commit violence, and then we
do social punishment, that
kind of back and forth I don’t
agree with, personally. What
I think is, we need to follow
the system and rules and
regulations, and if someone
commits a crime, they should
be punished in accordance
with the law. If we engage in
social punishment it can lead
to chaos. When others do it,
I don’t comment on it or feel
like I know enough to judge the
actions of others.” (FGD_02)
“If one person kills another
person, that act of crime
should be punished, but to
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decide whether he or she
should be punished, we have
courts and institutions and
professionals. We need to rely
on institutional arrangements
to punish those responsible for
the crimes, we should not take
up this business ourselves.”
(FGD_02) (Male)
“We all have anger and can be
angry from time to time. But
we need to think about the
actions of someone else before
we make a comment. The limit
I set myself is talking about
justice. For example, if one
person kills another person,
I would say ok we should take
legal action against this
person. Even though I want to
say something more than what
the law says, we should not
say things that could lead
to chaos. That’s the limit
I set for myself, otherwise
the consequences will be very
negative for society. This is a
self-limit I impose on myself.”
(FGD_02) (Male)
“Social punishment is like an
eye for an eye thing, so we
should use the right way to
deal with these situations. For
example, in early February,
there was a policeman killing
a female protestor and we did
social punishment against him
for his violence against an
innocent civilian, but when it
comes to his family members,
I don’t think it’s the right
way to engage. If someone
kills someone else, in that
case we can’t tolerate it and
we must express that this