Matt Schissler information we access – increasingly through Facebook – is also a productive force that contributes to shaping worldviews and political viewpoints, potentially driving polarization and extremism. ----Information and ideas do move differently in Myanmar, but that is about to change. Myanmar's erstwhile state monopoly over telecommunications is breaking up and mobile phones, once available to only the handful that could afford expensive SIM cards, are becoming more common. In 2013, an estimated less than 4% of the population had mobile phones, though government statistics claim 10% – still the lowest penetration rate of any country in Asia save for North Korea.10 In early 2014, two international telecoms companies, Ooredoo and Telenor, received operating licenses to establish new networks across Myanmar; Ooredoo's publicly stated target is to extend network coverage to 97% of the population within five years.11 Telenor’s goal is 90%.12 The target set by U Thein Sein, Myanmar's president, is slightly more modest: 80% of the population by 2016.13 In 2014, meanwhile, the costs of mobile phones and tablets that can handle basic Internet functions are dropping precipitously. Myanmar’s regional neighbours are useful indicators in this respect and, where they have seen increased mobile access, that now also entails access to the Internet.14 Elsewhere in the region, too, Internet access has meant large percentages of the population using social media. A journalist commenting on recent data about use of social media in Asia perhaps put it best: Facebook is not a website visited by Internet users, “Facebook is the Internet.”15 This is likely to hold true in Myanmar; social media not as a website or one source of customized news, but as the dominant platform by which people get ideas and information from outside their immediate circles of ‘real life’ family, friends, neighbours, and religious leaders. One regional marketing company, for example, identifies 1,240,000 Facebook users in the country.16 If the current estimate that approximately 1% of the population has access to the Internet is accurate, this would represent more than two Facebook accounts for every Internet user in Myanmar. Underscoring Facebook’s role as a source and conduit for information flows, the site is already used as a communication platform for government leaders and politicians, civil society, the private sector, and journalists. Government departments including the office of Myanmar’s President regularly issue information and statements via Facebook. Journalists often scoop stories by trawling their newsfeeds. Even Myanmar’s monastic community, which lives an otherwise ascetic life, uses Facebook to access and disseminate information. At an event I attended to discuss harmony between religious communities, for example, a Buddhist leader criticized American diplomats in attendance for bias in their criticisms 10 Jared Ferrie, “In Myanmar, Cheap SIM Card Draw May Herald Telecoms Revolution,” Reuters, April 24, 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/24/us-myanmar-telecoms-draw-idUSBRE93N1AX20130424. 11 Van Gyi Wednesday, January 29, and 2014-7:16 Pm, “Ooredoo, Telenor Finally Set to Get Myanmar Telecoms Licenses,” accessed February 12, 2014, http://www.irrawaddy.org/business/ooredoo-telenor-finally-set-get-burmatelecoms-licenses.html. 12 “Telenor on $1bn Roll in Myanmar,” Bangkok Post, March 8, 2014, http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/398743/. 13 “Myanmar’s Mobile Penetration Rate Expected to Reach 80 Percent by 2015-16,” Eleven Myanmar, accessed March 6, 2014, http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5017:myanmars-mobile-penetration-rate-expected-to-reach-80-percent-by-2015-16&catid=44&Itemid=384. 14 We Are Social, 2014 Asia-Pacific Digital Overview: We Are Social’s Snapshot of Key Digital Data & Statistics. 15 Jon Russell, “Despite Claims of a Decline in the West, Facebook Is Stronger Than Ever in the Rest of the World,” The Next Web, January 27, 2014, http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/01/27/despite-claims-of-a-decline-in-thewest-facebook-is-stronger-than-ever-in-the-rest-of-the-world/. Emphasis added. 16 We Are Social, 2014 Asia-Pacific Digital Overview: We Are Social’s Snapshot of Key Digital Data & Statistics, 132. 4/13