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Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar Key issues and recommendations The most urgent areas of concern raised by this study can be distilled into the following four key issues, for which possible solutions and recommendations are proposed, grouped by the sectors that we propose should take the lead on these. 1. Myanmar’s young people lack digital citizenship skills 2. Online sexual harassment is highly prevalent and harming young people in Myanmar 3. Online hate speech has real world impact and is a barrier to social cohesion 4. The lack of online resources to support the mental health and education of young people in Myanmar Recommendations for Government  Support the development of a digital citizenship curriculum to be introduced in all schools, with a key focus on staying safe online and critical evaluation of online content (especially fake news).  Introduce laws to govern technology-facilitated Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and create a regulatory body with the power to compel social media platforms to address instances of image-based abuse in a timely fashion.  Partner with Save the Children and other actors to provide online psychosocial ‘fact sheets’ in multiple languages to educate young people (and adults) about positive coping mechanisms to deal with stress and other emotional issues. Recommendations for Non-Government Organisations (NGOs)  Support ongoing efforts by Facebook to: a) ensure that all Facebook tools are available in Burmese and other local Myanmar languages; b) increase the number of Burmese and Myanmar local language content moderators working for Facebook; c) improve effectiveness in responding to fake news and hate speech reports (and flagging via ‘haha’ emojis), by both removing offending posts and preventing their re-posting.  Partner with actors tackling GBV to promote awareness of the prevalence and impact of online sexual harassment in Myanmar.  Develop online video campaigns aimed at young men and women to communicate the impact of online sexual harassment and provide information about how to respond and take action.  Recruit celebrities and key influencers to promote digital safety and media literacy through multiple avenues, including sharable social media posts and videos.  Recruit celebrities and key influencers to promote peace, tolerance and diversity through positive messaging and encouraging connections between people from different cultures.  Develop an online video campaign to humanise the victims of hate speech and communicate the real-world impact that hate speech has on the lives of victims, including psychologically, and on Myanmar society (i.e., conflict and violence). Stories from young people who have been deradicalized in their views of minority groups could also be very impactful.  Consult with young people from a range of cultures, as this will be key to ensuring that anti-hate speech and harassment messages connect with the target audience. 10

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Mobile Myanmar: The impact of social media on young people in conflict-affected regions of Myanmar

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English

Topic

Hate Speech
Internet Connectivity / Accessibility

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Save the Children
The University of Sydney

Date Published: Nov 1, 2019

Abstract: The advent of social media in Myanmar following the transition towards civilian rule announced in 2011 has given young people an important new platform for civic engagement and expression, and access to information and knowledge. But while young people are highly engaged with social media and its potential to bring benefits to their daily lives, this research reveals a number of alarming trends. Emerging new dangers such as online sexual harassment and hate speech are widespread and deeply concerning, and threaten to impact the safety and participation of girls and minority groups. Most young people lack the digital citizenship skills required to protect themselves from the online dangers and emotional and mental health impacts of social media highlighted in this report. The study finds evidence that young people across Myanmar suffer from ‘hate speech fatigue’, often exacerbated by repeat exposure to fake news and propaganda targeting specific communities. Over time, this effect limits young Myanmar users’ willingness to seek out and engage with reporting and blocking functions that may help combat fake news and hate speech online. Understanding the impact of social media on social and political discourse in Myanmar is of urgent, critical importance. While the young people in this study saw great potential for social media to increase empathy and understanding between different groups, the struggle to curb anti-Muslim hate speech in particular, and the structural and violent oppression it begets, is still very real. As recent global events have shown, democratic processes are especially vulnerable to disinformation campaigns and the spread of fake news and hate speech. Myanmar’s democracy is still new, and with elections upcoming in 2020, social media could very well play a role in shifting voter attitudes, especially among young people.

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Mobile Myanmar: The impact of social media on young people in conflict-affected regions of Myanmar

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