Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar A recent (unpublished) report provides a useful mapping of the key online influencers in Rakhine on current affairs (McKay, 2018a). Prominent among trusted online influencers inside Rakhine were current and former military officers, high profile monks, and key figures in the National League for Democracy (NLD). Prior to the latest outbreak of conflict, young people in Rakhine were reportedly monitoring the Facebook pages of key military and ethnic armed group figures to verify rumours they heard as the crisis unfolded. Many of these voices are active in questioning or actively undermining the version of current events provided in international media. Unsurprisingly, the report notes, Rohingya voices were coming from influencers outside of Myanmar. Kayah State – key demographic, conflict, and other relevant information Although one of Myanmar’s smallest states (population c. 300,000), Kayah State ranks as one of its most complex. It has at least nine different ethnic groups, and seven armed groups across seven townships, with fluid and often contested power-sharing arrangements between these groups and the central government (McKay, 2016). Kayah has a long history of political separation from the rest of Myanmar (during WW2 it was even annexed into Thailand), and its remoteness and long history of internal conflict has resulted in “a dearth of research on the political conflicts that have had a devastating impact on the ground…and socio-economic challenges facing many communities in Kayah State are little documented or understood” (Kramer, Russell, & Smith, 2018, p. 11). Peace-talks during the Thein Sein administration raised hopes of bringing an end to decades of internal conflict and simplifying the complex map of internal control. The signing of a ceasefire agreement between the Tatmadaw and the largest ethnic armed group in Kayah –The Karenni National Progress Party (KNPP) – was a significant step forward to normalising relations with the Union government. However, two years on since the NLD government took power, political control within the state remains highly factional, with a multitude of smaller armed groups jostling with the KNPP for territory and lucrative control over mining concessions and cross-border trade in licit and illicit goods. Older ethnic and religious rivalries (largely between Buddhists and Christians in the case of the latter) within the state continue to simmer beneath the surface. Findings from a recent nationwide living standards survey (World Bank, 2018) paint a contradictory picture on quality of life for people in Kayah. The state is one of the poorest in the Union, with largest average household size and high fertility rates. Its population also ranks towards the low end within the Union on levels of literacy (81%) and numeracy (80%), and there have been high levels of out-migration in recent years. However, youth unemployment in Kayah is particularly low (McKay, 2018b), and its population is unusually well-connected. While no detailed analysis of social media use/behaviour within the state has yet been carried out, Kayah has the second highest rate of households with electricity (behind only Yangon), and 85% of households have at least one smartphone (ranking it 5/15 within the Union). It also ranks second, again only behind Yangon, on the percentage of the population aged 15 and above who had used the internet (from any source) daily in the prior 7 days (26%). From recent news reports, traditional and social media in Kayah State play a key role in mobilising political protest. This may be connected to the fact that despite its small size, Kayah State has a vibrant and vocal civil society, with a particularly high proportion of students (around a fifth of the state population, although less than 2000 are in tertiary education; Oudot & Baudey, 2015). In recent months the NLD government’s decision to erect a statue of General Aung San in the state capital, Loikaw, has mobilised a powerful movement of civil society and student groups in opposition, and a protest in July 2018 ended in clashes with police and more than 20 arrests (Khaing & Aung, 2018). Social media has played a central role in the dispute – secretly recorded comments by Chief Minister claiming he would call in Tatmadaw troops to handle future protests went viral on social media (Han, 2018). The stand-off has highlighted this historically strong feeling of separateness from, and neglect by, the central government. 22