Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar
Key issues and recommendations
The most urgent areas of concern raised by this study can be distilled into the following four key issues, for which
possible solutions and recommendations are proposed, grouped by the sectors that we propose should take the lead
on these.
1. Myanmar’s young people lack digital citizenship skills
2. Online sexual harassment is highly prevalent and harming young people in Myanmar
3. Online hate speech has real world impact and is a barrier to social cohesion
4. The lack of online resources to support the mental health and education of young people in Myanmar
Recommendations for Government
Support the development of a digital citizenship curriculum to be introduced in all schools, with a key focus on
staying safe online and critical evaluation of online content (especially fake news).
Introduce laws to govern technology-facilitated Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and create a regulatory body with
the power to compel social media platforms to address instances of image-based abuse in a timely fashion.
Partner with Save the Children and other actors to provide online psychosocial ‘fact sheets’ in multiple languages
to educate young people (and adults) about positive coping mechanisms to deal with stress and other emotional
issues.
Recommendations for Non-Government Organisations (NGOs)
Support ongoing efforts by Facebook to: a) ensure that all Facebook tools are available in Burmese and other local
Myanmar languages; b) increase the number of Burmese and Myanmar local language content moderators working
for Facebook; c) improve effectiveness in responding to fake news and hate speech reports (and flagging via ‘haha’
emojis), by both removing offending posts and preventing their re-posting.
Partner with actors tackling GBV to promote awareness of the prevalence and impact of online sexual harassment
in Myanmar.
Develop online video campaigns aimed at young men and women to communicate the impact of online sexual
harassment and provide information about how to respond and take action.
Recruit celebrities and key influencers to promote digital safety and media literacy through multiple avenues,
including sharable social media posts and videos.
Recruit celebrities and key influencers to promote peace, tolerance and diversity through positive messaging and
encouraging connections between people from different cultures.
Develop an online video campaign to humanise the victims of hate speech and communicate the real-world impact
that hate speech has on the lives of victims, including psychologically, and on Myanmar society (i.e., conflict and
violence). Stories from young people who have been deradicalized in their views of minority groups could also be
very impactful.
Consult with young people from a range of cultures, as this will be key to ensuring that anti-hate speech and
harassment messages connect with the target audience.
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