Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS: KAYAH STATE This section presents a summary of the qualitative analysis of the 8 FGDs conducted in Kayah State. In total there were 58 Kayah State participants (28 urban-based and 30 rural-based) ranging in age from 17–31 years, and from religiously and ethnically diverse backgrounds (see Methodology Section for full details of FGD demographics). Direct quotes included in this section contain as much demographic information as was recorded against that quote from the field notes in each case. All FGDs followed the same general outline, covering the seven areas of interest detailed in the Methodology Section (the full FGD guide is available in Appendix B). The area of interest ‘hate speech and harassment’ is separated here into two separate areas due to the high volume of responses and divergent themes that emerged. General usage The most commonly used app in both the rural and urban locations in Kayah State was Facebook. The other apps participants from both locations mentioned were Messenger, TikTok, Twitter, Viber, and YouTube. There was a mixed response regarding other apps. Some rural participants used and/or knew about apps such as Instagram, WeChat, WhatsApp, and Snapchat, but many of the participants in the urban location did not. Rural participants noted that they use the more popular apps like Facebook because everyone else uses them (i.e., they are trendy), easy to use, and cheaper than making calls. More specifically, Facebook is used to search (i.e., get information and read the news) and connect with family and friends. It was pointed out that it was helpful to have these functions all in the one place. It was mentioned that it was easier to find information through Facebook compared to Google (which was mostly used to download new software Messenger and Viber were also used to connect with family and friends). It is possible that Google is considered more difficult to use due to its inability to reconcile Zawgyi and Unicode font encodings, which can inhibit efficient searching in Myanmar language. Online safety Participants from the urban locations all agreed that being online was not safe for young people. Their reasons included inappropriate use of personal images, receiving calls from strangers, and the potential for their account being hacked. Across the rural and urban locations, there was a mixed response from participants having known about and/or having used the block feature. Rural participants discussed blocking users that were both known and unknown (i.e., strangers) to them. Reasons for blocking friends known to them included because they posted offensive material or simply posted too often. Reasons for blocking strangers included having received inappropriate messages or images. Accepting friendship requests from strangers seemed to be common across all locations, though many said they only accepted requests from people from their own ethnicity or community. “One Burmese guy approached me, we became friends at first and later he started share some inappropriate pics, so I just blocked him.” Female, 19-25 years, Htee Theh Kaloe & Daw Lyar Khu villages (Kayah State rural) With regards to the report feature, participants from the urban locations reported that they have used this feature to report pages with inappropriate images. Others have joined friends to report a particular page that was inappropriate or had been asked by a friend to report their account when it was hacked into. A non-Facebook user from the urban locations noted that they were not interested in the block or report feature, as they primarily used search engines to obtain information. Participants who have blocked and/or reported noted they were self-taught in using these features. With so many participants unaware of how to use Facebook’s blocking and reporting functions, facilitators demonstrated to each focus group how to use these functions, and how to hide personal information such as phone numbers in their accounts. During these demonstrations, participants asked questions about these features such as 36