74 Hate Speech Ignited: Understanding Hate Speech in Myanmar Many of the weaponized laws are overbroad, and the government has enforced these provisions inconsistently, selectively prosecuting certain persons while allowing hate speech by the military and ultranationalists to go unchecked.464 (See Box on Domestic Law Currently in Effect and Constraining Freedom of Expression). These laws have been routinely used to target HRDs and CSOs, who question government policies, curb free expression, and restrict peaceful assemblies.465 Even though they could be utilized to prosecute prominent ultranationalist figures for their hate speech and prohibit nationalists convenings, not a single case, trial, or ban has taken place in Myanmar.466 Thus, any pos- sible protection for targeted minority groups offered by Myanmar’s law has been rendered virtually meaningless, while the crackdown on dissent, CSOs, and HRDs has increased. Penal Code Instead of protecting Myanmar’s minority groups, the government has utilized the Penal Code provisions to punish protesters and dissidents. For example, in December 2018, a Myanmar court found three Kachin activists guilty of defaming the military under Article 500, sentencing each to six months in prison and imposing a fine.467 The activists had organized a protest drawing attention to civilian displacement resulting from fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Kachin Independence Army, an EAO in Kachin State, and criticized the military’s actions.468 According to Human Rights Watch, “[t]he use of Penal Code section 505(b) to enhance the pos- sible sentence for protesters appears to be common practice.”469 Human Rights Watch has also criticized the “lack of clarity” in the provision, arguing that the broad and ambiguous phrasing allows for “abuse by officials looking for a way to silence critics of the government or others who are making statements to which officials object.”470 As the offence is considered non-bailable, the government has also used it to detain such individuals for long periods before trial.471 In fact, restrictions on expression appear to be used to bolster those in power.472 With the rise of religious extremism in the country, for example, groups of monks have increasingly been invoking Penal Code provisions on religious insults against individuals to silence leaders of minority ethnic communities and HRDs for allegedly insulting the majority Buddhist population.473 Telecommunications Law Activists also cited their concerns for potential prosecutions under the Telecommunications Law.474 With its vague language, Section 66(d) quickly became a major tool to stifle political dissent against 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 Human Rights Watch, Dashed Hopes, 76–77. Ibid., 12–14, 18, 62. Ibid. Human Rights Watch, “Myanmar: Quash Conviction of Kachin Activists,” December 8, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/ news/2018/12/08/myanmar-quash-conviction-kachin-activists. Ibid. Human Rights Watch, They Can Arrest You at Any Time: Criminalization of Peaceful Expression in Burma (June 29, 2016), 4. Ibid., 50. Ibid., 51. Ibid. Ibid., 9. FGD (December 2019).