Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar “The parents are worse than their children. They repeat and share old news, and also spread the news verbally by telling their friends at markets. Eighty percent can’t differentiate between fake and real news. Children only share news to their circles. But parents spread news quicker as they have more friends.” Female, 35 years, Kayaw Christian, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) “The elderly who are over 50 years believe that Facebook is the news.” Male, 34 years, Kayan Christian, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) Some remarked that trust in news on social media has gone down in recent years due to the proliferation of fake news. “As there is more fake news, people trust less in what they see in Facebook. I started using Facebook only in 2017 when I finished my high school. Now I am using more Facebook and I can also differentiate between fake news and real news.” Female, 18 years, Kaman Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) “I do not think the young people nowadays may believe what they see from online these days. When we arrived to this camp at first, we usually trust whatever we see and hear from social media...There is another Facebook page call ‘RVision (R stands for Rohingya)’ that many people use to search for information about current Rohingya affairs or updates from Rakhine State. But 50% of the news from that page are not true. Most of them are just fake news.” Male, 46 years, Rohingya Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) “They don’t trust that much. Before when I was younger, I trusted most of the things I see on social media. If I read something online, my feeling would follow how it was written. If I read a sad post, I also felt sad. When I read a post that condemned someone, I also hate that person. But when I started going to university, I became less sensitive. Our teachers told us like a novelist, who wrote a novel to play with their readers feeling, Facebook is the easiest way to spread news. So now when I read news, I verify the news and determine whether this is true or not.” Female, 22 years, Rakhine Buddhist, Sittwe (Rakhine State urban) When asked how young people react to fake news, two clear but contrasting themes emerged: young people would either ignore fake news stories or post a comment on them. Male participants were more likely than others to say that young people mostly ignore fake news (especially those from Kayah) while responses saying that young people post comments were received from all demographics. Examples of the types of comments posted included questioning the accuracy of news posts, alerting others that it is not to be trusted, or simply curse/offensive words or emoji reactions. Only a small number of respondents said that young people report fake news, as most did not know about this Facebook feature. “Mostly they just ignore or skip fake news. They hardly take action like giving comments or reporting on it. But on the [real] news… they will post comments that mostly are offensive words.” Male, 34 years, Kayan Christian, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) “When they know it is fake news, they give comments that this news if not real or they stop sharing.” Female, 36 years, Kayan Christian, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) 63