San Suu Kyi and the NLD were depicted on Facebook as pro-Muslim by posts including doctored pictures showing her wearing a Muslim head scarf (Reuters, 2018), and in the 2018 elections these attacks expanded to include Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (Callahan, 2019). Evidence that this strategy was at least partially effective includes the NLD’s and USDP’s decisions not to field a single Muslim candidate in the 2015 elections. It is worth noting, however, that despite the attacks, the NLD still overwhelmingly won an electoral victory similar to its victory in 1990, indicating that the attacks were not successful enough to undermine NLD’s political strength. On the side of the state, reports have documented a “systematic campaign” by the military using Facebook to attack minorities, especially Myanmar’s Muslims, through a series of fake accounts that spread incendiary content through “lurid photos, false news, and inflammatory posts.” The posts also allegedly spread false rumors about Aung San Suu Kyi, trying to undermine her credibility and reputation in the country. The accounts also spread rumors targeting both Buddhist and Muslim groups that both sides were about to carry out attacks against the other. Overall, the effect was to turn Facebook into “a tool for ethnic cleansing,” including inciting the population against the Rohingya (Mozur, 2018). A 2018 UN fact-finding mission report highlighted how Facebook had been a “useful instrument” for promoting hate and violence (UNHRC, 2018). Freedom House has detailed how military and government sources have used propaganda on social media to promote their narrative on the crisis in Rakhine, while disinformation from a range of national and international sources have created further anger and hatred between anti- and pro-Rohingya groups (Freedom House, 2018). Despite widespread recognition of the dangers of hate speech and disinformation against vulnerable minorities in Myanmar, in August 2018 Reuters discovered at least 1,000 examples of Facebook posts, comments, images and videos attacking Myanmar Muslims or Rohingya still visible on the application. The posts often called for violence against Rohingya or Muslims and described them in obscene or dehumanizing ways (Reuters, 2018). Government Responses to Hate Speech and Disinformation on Social Media in Myanmar 7