Hate Speech, Disinformation and Political Violence in Myanmar *Draft: Not for Distribution or Citation* Jeremy Liebowitz International Republican Institute Abstract Inter-ethnic and sectarian violence has been a consistent feature of Burma’s colonial-era and post-independence politics. Long-standing conflict between the Burmese military and ethnic armed organizations representing the country’s ethnic minorities has caused numerous deaths, widespread displacement, and a deep scar on national unity that is unlikely to heal in the short run. Violence across religious lines has also been widespread, with the most recent conflict involving the Rohingya minority in Rakhine State the most dramatic example. Since political liberalization picked up speed in 2012, social media usage has skyrocketed, with increasing access to social media through mobile phones. An array of groups, including both state actors and non-state groups, has increasingly used social media as a channel to spread rumors that promote discrimination and attacks against ethnic and religious minorities. With over 18 million internet users in Burma in 2018, most of them accessing the internet through Facebook, it is likely that social media will continue to be a channel for groups seeking to promote ethnic or religious discrimination and strife. The rise of social media usage in Burma has, as in many other countries, led to an increase in disinformation, propaganda, and hate speech with serious consequences. This paper argues that coordinated efforts to inflame hatred and anger across ethnic and religious divides in Burma have created a trajectory in which: 1) Increased expression of ethnic and religious discrimination, through disinformation, propaganda, and hate speech on social media have created a fertile ground for ethnic and sectarian violence; 2) Attempts to limit such discriminatory social media content have led to greater constraints on free expression without significantly reducing the discriminatory content; 3) The vacuum of information and public space for discussion resulting from controls on social media has led to an even more fertile ground for further disinformation, propaganda and hate speech. In the 2015 elections, social media-based attacks on ethnic and religious minorities led to politicians distancing themselves from positions that could cause them to be perceived as sympathetic to those minorities, especially religious minorities. Attempts by government to control the spread of disinformation, propaganda and hate speech over Facebook (the primary channel for social media and internet use in Burma), have met with limited success. The 2013 Telecommunications Act, which prohibits a range of behavior using a telecommunication network, has had more of a chilling effect on public discussion and debate than it has had on inflammatory and discriminatory social media content. The Telecommunications Act continues to be used to punish political dissent and public criticism of the military and government leaders. Facebook has also recently taken several actions to attempt to control the spread of hate speech and disinformation, including shutting down the accounts of key figures responsible for disinformation, with many of those accounts connected to Burma’s military, and also shutting down the Facebook pages for four armed ethnic organizations. 1