Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar “Most of the time, the type of hate speech is Anti-Muslim or Rohingya. We have been living together peacefully for many years, but they do not accept us.” Female, 36 years, Rohingya Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) “Most hate speech is based on religion and race. The racial hate speech is between ethnic people and Bamar, and between Muslims and Bamar. The religion is mixed with the racial issue.” Male, 24 years, Kayah Christian, Kyun Taw Village (Kayah State rural) “Someone who is not local hates Kayah and tried to ignite conflict between Kayah and Kayan people. He posted that Kayan will kill Kayah people. The account owner was spreading propaganda. Although the two ethnicities haven’t had a real problem offline, they post offending comments against each other on Facebook. Those who understood the situation posted their comments saying that this is propaganda and those who didn’t know challenge the other ethnic group were like ‘come to Loikaw, we will kill you’.” Male, 24 years, Kayah Christian, Daw Lyar Ku & Htee Seh Kaloe Village (Kayah State rural) “There are some and certain groups of people, a third party, who are purposely creating more tensions between Rakhine and Muslim community who are currently having a conflict. They will use and create certain fake accounts or fake news to cause problems against each other by using the social media platform. I am not so sure why they are doing it.” Male, 20 years, Rakhine Buddhist, Sittwe (Rakhine State urban) There were also examples of political hate speech (e.g., NLD versus USDP, anti-Arakan Army) and urban versus rural hate speech (identified by both rural and urban respondents). “I saw hate speech between NLD and USDP. The NLD supporters said USDP members are thieves.” Male, 24 years, Kayah Christian, Daw Lyar Ku & Htee Seh Kaloe Villages (Kayah State rural) “In this state, [hate speech is] mainly about ‘Anti-AA’. For example, when someone posts some information about AA, some people will write rude comments or cursing comments against Rakhine people. Mostly they are Burmese.” Male, 20 years, Rakhine Buddhist, Sittwe (Rakhine State urban) “[There is] hate speech between urban and rural people. For example, the people from cities look down on rural people or villagers like us.” Male, 35 years, Kayah Buddhist, Daw Lyar Ku & Htee Seh Kaloe Villages (Kayah State rural) Political hate speech often overlaps with racial hate speech, with differing support given to the Rakhine and Rohingya ethnic groups fuelling tensions between these communities. “The support that goes to the Rakhine region is often not equal, more is given to the Muslim community than Rakhine. When that happens, we usually have opposition to this posted on Facebook. Other examples that I usually see on Facebook are ‘Kalar are not citizens, only Rakhine should receive more opportunities’.” Male, 19 years, Rakhine Buddhist, Sittwe (Rakhine State urban) When asked about the impact of online hate speech on young people, most Muslim IDP young people said that it leaves them and their peers feeling frustrated, depressed and hopeless (in all cases they spoke as the victims of hate speech). These are responses are consistent with the Muslim IDP FGDs and reflect the ongoing discrimination and threat of 68