Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar violence that the Rohingya community are subjected to in Myanmar. While there were no reported cases of self-harm, there some concerning comments from young people saying that hate speech makes them feel like they don’t want to live, consistent with some comments from the Muslim IDP FGDs. “It can change their attitude. Some young people don’t have ID and they feel caged living in this camp. So when they hear hate speech against them, they lose their hope.” Female, 18 years, Kaman Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) “[The impact is] negative – more stress, more pressure, I don’t want to eat or live…Why are they saying this? Why are they accusing [us] like this?” Male, 24 years, Rohingya Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) “The hate speech can have negative impacts on the psychological and emotional state of the young people. This can make them lose their hope and beliefs for their lives.” Male, 29 years, Rohingya Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) “For those who understand hate speech, it makes them feel hopeless or diminishes their hope. In the beginning, they ignored when they see hate speech but when they repeatedly see these kind of posts, they feel depressed. They think we don’t have any rights in this country, we don’t have right to study or any freedom of movement. They lose their social life and communication with other young people. There are some good young people who want to build good communication and relationship with young people from other religions and ethnicities. Hate speech destroys their hope. They will think it is impossible to make friends with Rakhine because they hate us even though we didn’t do anything to them.” Male, 29 years, Rohingya Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) One adult Muslim IDP respondent believed that in the context of the situation they are facing that online hate speech did not have much impact on their young people. “I do not think so. Because there are no changes whether they hear the hate speech or not.” Female, 36 years, Rohingya Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) Responses from Kayah and Rakhine Urban were inconsistent, with almost half saying that they thought hate speech did not have much impact on young people (especially if it is not relevant to them). Those who thought that hate speech did have an impact said that it encouraged young people to exhibit discrimination towards other religions and ethnicities (most hate speech examples discussed from these regions were perpetrated against groups other than their own). “There is negative impact. They cling onto hatred and denounce other religions. For example, in relationship to Kalar – they don’t want to buy products sold by Kalar. Also, they don’t want to buy Chinese products.” Male, 24 years, Kayah Christian, Kyun Taw Village (Kayah State rural) “The people here don’t care much about issues that are not relevant to them, like the Muslim issue. They just skip posts related to that. If it is about KNPP news, most Kayan people don’t care as they think it is not relevant to them.” Male, 34 years, Kayan Christian, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) 69