B. Key Drivers...........................................................................................................................56 Contributors to and Beneficiaries of Hate Speech................................................................ 56 Policies that Enable or Facilitate Hate Speech....................................................................... 58 Poverty ................................................................................................................................................... 59 Systematic Discrimination in the Education System .......................................................... 59 C. Channels and Forms of Dissemination........................................................................62 Online Channels................................................................................................................................... 62 The role of Facebook in Myanmar............................................................................................ 62 Challenges facing hate speech regulation on Facebook.................................................. 63 Ineffectiveness of Removal.......................................................................................................... 63 Technological Discrepancy.......................................................................................................... 64 Need for Greater Context Sensitivity ..................................................................................... 64 Increasing use of alternative online channels..................................................................... 65 Offline Channels.................................................................................................................................. 66 Electronic media—movies and DVDs..................................................................................... 66 Print media—books, newspapers, and pamphlets .......................................................... 67 D. Impact on Ethnic and Religious Minority Communities and Civil Society......69 Impacted Communities – Distrust and Violence .................................................................. 69 Closing Civil Society Space – Increasing Difficulties in Combatting Hate Speech .......................................................................................................................................... 72 A Weaponization of the Law to Suppress Dissent ........................................................... 73 Penal Code.......................................................................................................................................... 74 Telecommunications Law............................................................................................................ 74 Printing and Publishing Law...................................................................................................... 75 Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law............................................................. 76 Official Secrets Act.......................................................................................................................... 76 Targeting Civil Society and Freedom of Expression......................................................... 77 Gendered Violence and Social Media Targeting................................................................. 82 Chilling Activism.............................................................................................................................. 83 LEGAL FRAMEWORK: AN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH TO ADDRESSING HATE SPEECH AND PROTECTING FREE EXPRESSION IN MYANMAR......................................................................87 A. Regulating and Combatting Hate Speech in Myanmar .........................................89 Prohibitions on incitement............................................................................................................. 90 Combating root causes of hate speech...................................................................................... 92 The Case of Myanmar ....................................................................................................................... 93