Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar “The people here are not like people from the cities, we are pure. We just keep things to ourselves even it is right or wrong. We don’t say things that are bad”. Male, 23 years, Kayan Christian, Lo Bar Kho Village (Kayah State rural) What came out across all locations was that while the participants had difficulty expressing and describing the direct impact hate speech has on their attitudes and behaviour, they were able to articulate how seeing hate speech made them feel. Participants from both rural and urban locations revealed several feelings about seeing hate speech posts, including feelings of sadness and empathy for people targeted by hate speech. Responses reflected that they feel bad and show worry about the tension it causes between people, especially those who may not be equipped to differentiate between news that is fake and real. “No direct impact on us but mainly I feel bad. I am just trying not to get involved and control myself.” Female, 18-22 years, Kayah Buddhist, Dee Maw Hso (Kayah State urban) “I felt bad and sad to find out some people from Myanmar have very narrow minds.” Female, 20 years, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) Other feelings reported included anger and resentment, particularly towards hate speech targeted at their own ethnicity and community. Some participants were embarrassed by certain comments that were made, and some empathised with the feelings posted by others. Another participant questioned how people can treat others in that way. In relation to how participants respond to these kinds of posts, the girls from the rural locations said they responded by blocking. One girl noted that they feel bad and would like to respond to perpetrators of fake news with curse words, but instead only do so silently to themselves. Boys on the other hand reported retaliating by responding in the same manner they have been treated, when they feel offended. In the urban locations, there were a variety of responses to hate speech. Some skip and ignore, one participant said they discuss and sometimes debate the topic with their friends, while another said they try to engage positively in the comments and trying to ‘solve’ the issue. “Just when I see the posts who are attacking religion (Christianity). Although it is not directly attack on me, I started to get involved and also defend in the comments. I said, ‘instead of attacking each other, let’s just have our own faith separately without spreading hatred’. I tried to solve it.” Female, 20 years, Kayan Christian, Dee Maw Hso (Kayah State urban) When asked about anti-hate speech campaigns, only one participant from the Loikaw urban location identified a specific campaign – a ‘Peacemaker’ group who made posts about peace. The majority of the participant responses from both rural and urban locations instead described seeing posts and comments that were inspirational, motivational, and encouraged positivity. They reflected that these positive posts promoted guidance on ‘living peacefully with other groups of people’ and understanding others in an attempt to prevent conflict. While the use of Facebook was said to relieve feelings (such as anger) and allow them to show their own feelings by sharing what they agree with, participants noted that fake news made Facebook less trustworthy, and contributed to the creation of tensions, making offline situations worse. 42