Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar San Lwin. Most urban participants said ‘no’ to this question and instead spoke of offline influencers such as religious leaders (e.g., Buddhist monks) who they said are highly regarded in the villages. Hate speech When asked to describe hate speech, some urban participants focused on more general acts of aggressive speech (such as between sports fans, towards celebrities, belittling or cursing someone, insulting someone’s dignity) rather than on abusive speech expressing prejudice against particular groups. When asked the difference between hate speech and harassment, two Muslim teachers from the Basara IDP camp noted that harassment hurts one person, while hate speech can affect a group of people. Facilitators noted that urban-based young people were very reluctant to discuss intercommunal conflict. In contrast, Muslim IDP participants were more willing to discuss the discriminatory aspects of hate speech, describing numerous examples of being insulted and harassed online because of their ethnicity and/or religion. The included being called ‘Kalar’ and told they that are ‘stateless’ people who don’t belong in Myanmar. “We have many feelings. We were born in this country. We always see the posts in Facebook saying Kalar is like this or like that… You can tell how much we feel about this. I was born in this country. My mother was born in this country, but they don’t accept us. There is no word to describe how much we feel.” Male, 20-24 years, Rohingya Muslim, Thet Kel Pyin (Rakhine State IDP) “Stateless people can only be found in the jungle or places where no one goes [but] they call us stateless people. When I hear this word, I don’t want to eat, I don’t want to go to school, I don’t want to work, I don’t want to sit in the shop, I just want to drink poison and die. This is how we feel. It is more than words to express how we feel.” Male, 20-24 years, Rohingya Muslim, Thet Kel Pyin (Rakhine State IDP) Participants were asked to write down, provide screen shots of or draw examples of hate speech they had encountered. Most examples provided across all demographics focused on hate speech directed against Rohingya or Muslims more generally, however there were also examples of insults towards the Rakhine ethnic group and the Arakan Army. When asked how these examples made them feel, common responses were feeling angry, sad and depressed, discriminated against, threatened, resentful, and like they wanted to take physical action against people who post these types of hate speech. When asked why people spread hate speech, responses included having a one-sided view, not wanting peace, being full of hatred, ‘like a psychopath’, not seeing other groups as human, wanting others to suffer, or wanting to make themselves feel better. Some mentioned that there were third parties (i.e., not part of the groups in conflict) who spread hate speech to cause conflict between other groups. One participant reflected on how hate speech has real impacts on people’s living conditions. “Before we lived in the city but now, we can’t live there anymore [because of hate speech]. Now we are in difficult condition. Here, all family members have to sleep in one 8-foot square room together. One family has about 11 or 12 members including sisters, brothers, father and mother. It is difficult for us.” Male, 24 years, Rohingya Muslim, Thet Kel Pyin, (Rakhine State IDP) There was a consensus between the urban focus groups that hate speech and harassment posts impact on behaviour and attitudes negatively. Participants reported that these kinds of posts drive a wedge between friends, make people 52