Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar There was consensus among the Muslim IDP participants that government and current events are not discussed online as this can lead to conflict and hate speech. Instead, they leave these discussions for offline conversations. However, urban participants said that a few of their friends did post about the government and politics. Only one participant recalled an example of doing so themselves, saying that they were cursed in the comments after posting a story about Aung San Suu Kyi. The main reason others did not post about politics was what they had heard about people going to jail for doing so (for breaching Section 66 (d) of the Telecommunication Law, which states that “anyone found guilty of extorting, coercing, restraining wrongfully, defaming, disturbing, causing undue influence or threatening any person by using any telecommunications network shall be punished with a maximum three years in prison, a fine or both”; Burma Campaign UK, 2019). One participant had a friend who was jailed for 10 days for what he expressed on Facebook about the government. He said that he tried to stay away from him even though they were classmates, because he didn’t want to get into trouble for associating with him. Impact on daily lives and psychological well-being In spite of the negative impacts of hate speech on the psychological well-being of Rohingya young people discussed above, the majority of participants from Muslim IDP camps said that social media had a more positive than negative impact on their daily lives overall, with most of the focus on the ability to communicate with family and friends overseas more affordably, obtain information and learn new things (including English). Most urban participants, however, thought that social media had both a positive and negative impact. In one urban group, the girls said that there were more negative impacts while the boys said there were more positive impacts. The most common negative impacts across all locations were hate speech, and the impact on quality of their family and other offline relationships due to spending too much time online. “Relationships become weaker as talking on social media is not the same as talking face to face.” Female, 19 years, Maramagyi Buddhist, Sittwe (Rakhine State urban) Few participants talked about how social media affected their thoughts, feelings or attitudes. However, when asked about using social media to cope with difficult emotions, a number of participants across all locations discussed how connecting with friends and viewing funny and inspirational posts helped reduce stress, improve their mood and reduce boredom. There were some gender and location differences observed in how they felt about their posting behaviour. In the urban groups, female participants said that they never post about their feelings, while some urban males said that they did. In contrast, Muslim IDP females did sometimes share their feelings on Facebook. “I share my feeling on the Facebook status. If I feel too much, I share my feelings on Facebook.” Female, 18 years, Rohingya Muslim, Thet Kel Pyin, (Rakhine State IDP) Most participants reported enjoying getting ‘likes’ on their posts, however some urban boys said that it was only girls who cared about this. “Boys don’t wait for likes, this is girls’ business.” Male, 19 years, Maramagyi Buddhist, Sittwe (Rakhine State urban) When asked about online identities, several participants commented that there is a difference in the way people act online versus the way they behave offline. A common theme was that people are more out there or ‘flirtatious’ online, 55