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than the news and government announcements in a place where censorship and propaganda have long been the norm’ Schissler explains, adding that ‘social media adds a megaphone to this.’85 Facebook is a new platform to distribute the rumours, but this platform allows access to a far greater audience, and misinformation can be created and disseminated at a greater pace. When posed with the next question: ‘how valuable is Facebook as a source of information?’ a number of participants from both focus groups believed that it was ‘mostly valuable uneducated people,’ and that ‘they believe the information, and then it is spread.’86 One participant from focus group one then noted that it is considered valuable to the youth: ‘youth see news and then share it’ he argued, and added that, because of social media, the youth have particularly bad attitudes towards Muslims and openly show hate.87 Additionally, for some cases it can be strong religious beliefs that affect the value of an article; when discussing the anti-Muslim narratives among fundamentalist Buddhists, a member of focus group one suggested that ‘for people who read these articles and strongly believe in their religion and are sensitive about that religion, they believe the information.’88 For example, a Buddhist may be more likely to believe Wirathu’s warnings of a supposed ‘population explosion’ among the Muslim community, or a statement claiming that ‘100 percent of rape cases in Burma are by Muslims; none are by Buddhists,’ according to his research.89 From these points we can make a number of conclusions: a) Facebook follows on from the word-of-mouth method to distribute information freely, b) uneducated people are more likely to believe and spread misinformation, and c) the youth are most vulnerable to misinformation online and are therefore susceptible to anti-Muslim beliefs. Therefore, we know when devising methods to counter hate speech that we 85 Holland, H., (2014) ‘Facebook in Myanmar: Amplifying hate speech?’, AlJazeera, available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/06/facebook-myanmar-rohingya-amplifyinghate-speech-2014612112834290144.html [November 2015]. 86 Focus Group One and Two, Interview by Davis, B., (2015). Participant, Focus Group One, Interview by Davis, B., (2015). 88 Participant, Focus Group One, Interview by Davis, B., (2015). 87 89 Wade, F., (2013) ‘Poison in the Sangha’, The Revealer, available at: http://therevealer.org/archives/17859 [November 2015]. - 40 -

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Religion, hate speech and social media in Myanmar: Analysing methods of intervention

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Language

English

Topic

Hate Speech
Rohingya Crisis

Author(s)

Bethany Davis

Date Published: Dec 1, 2015

Abstract: Myanmar is home to one of the longest running intrastate conflicts in the world, involving a series of ethnic and religious clashes that have caused harm to all parties involved. The ideology of a homogeneity based on Buddhism and the Bamar ethnicity has marginalized minority groups, which make up a third of the population, and has particularly affected the Rakhine state’s Buddhist and Muslim communities, the latter of which are subject to what international human rights organizations are calling an ethnic cleansing. Since the government relaxed restrictions to the access of foreign websites, the social media site Facebook has become a popular means to disseminate misinformation and rumours, and this has created mistrust and hatred against Muslims across the country, heightening the polarization between Buddhist and Muslim groups. This study will combine conflict analysis with the assessment of different approaches of countering hate speech to propose which methods of intervention are most suitable for this situation in Myanmar. Lederach argues that to counter hatred and avoid reoccurrence of violence, deep alterations of the parties’ relationships is needed. This idea forms the basis for chapter three which examines educational methods, interfaith projects and social media campaigns to both prevent and change negative attitudes towards the religious ‘Other’. It argues that education and awareness campaigns are more effective than the implementation of legal regulation as we need to combat the underlying issue. In addition to secondary sources, this study involved field research to collect information about how the youth are influence by hate speech and counter hate campaigns in Myanmar.

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Religion, hate speech and social media in Myanmar: Analysing methods of intervention

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