Matt Schissler Echo  chambers  in  Myanmar:     Social  media  and  the  ideological  justifications  for  mass  violence   Paper for the Australian National University Department of Political & Social Change Research Colloquium, “Communal Conflict in Myanmar: Characteristics, Causes, Consequences,” 17-18 March 2014, Yangon, Myanmar1 FINAL Abstract The ways that information and ideas move in Myanmar are about to change. Less than 10% of the population currently has a mobile phone; government and private sector projections are that this will grow to at least 80% by 2016. Experiences from regional neighbours indicate that expansion of mobile phone networks will be accompanied by Internet access and widespread use of social media. What are the potential consequences of this, in Myanmar’s current political context? Myanmar is amidst a fraught and vulnerable transition away from authoritarian military rule, with the rise of potentially violent nationalism and extremist religious movements of particular concern. Substantial literature establishes a relationship between the strengthening of such extremist views and dynamics created by widespread use of social media. This paper connects this literature to current understandings of how mass violence is justified – how those who give orders to kill, those who kill, and those who otherwise participate or stand aside are motivated to do so, and how doing so is legitimised and rationalised. The paper then seeks to understand how these dynamics may apply in Myanmar. This is a necessarily forward-looking topic, but the approach taken here will be to analyse the potential alignment between these new communication technologies and those existing communication practices developed as a part of surviving under, and sometimes resisting, authoritarian rule. Analysis of such potential alignments supports the hypothesis that expansion of Internet access in Myanmar, particularly the rise of social media, will contribute to dynamics that have the potential to strengthen the ideological justifications necessary for mass violence. Yet the analysis in this paper points to a new kind of opportunity: insofar as these dynamics are recognized and understood, it may be possible to disrupt them. To the degree that social media does become the dominant platform for mass communication of information and ideas, it may then be a powerful platform for challenging these discourses, and promoting alternate visions for the future. Matt Schissler has lived and worked in Myanmar and Thailand since 2007. He is based in Yangon, where he is Advisor to Paung Ku, a local organization that provides mentoring, financial, and technical assistance to strengthen civil society across Myanmar. Prior to joining Paung Ku in early 2012, Mr Schissler spent five years working with ethnic human rights and media organizations, where he focused on strengthening local capacities to document human rights violations, advocate for human rights, and work as independent journalists in Myanmar. He holds an MSt in International Human Rights Law from Oxford (New College), and earned distinction for a dissertation on the relationship between responses to forced labour demands in villages across eastern Myanmar and transnational efforts to enforce the Forced Labour Convention. He also holds BAs in Rhetoric and in Politics from Whitman College (USA), where he earned honours and distinction from both departments, including for a thesis on hate speech and ironic performance, as well as a Louis B. Perry award for student-faculty research on the ‘fighting words’ legal doctrine. He speaks Burmese. 1 This paper benefited from discussion of some of the concepts during presentation of a related paper at the conference, “Islam, Law and the State in Myanmar,” Centre for Asian Legal Studies, National University Singapore, January 23-24 2014. 1/13