meaning to understand the formations of these media systems, and the forms of disinformation; for example, multi-lingual societies, supremacy of religious norms and values, persisting conflicts, trust, seniority, racism, etc. In Malaysia the connotative context factors social stratifications/polarizations, supremacy of (religious) norms and values, persisting conflicts, multiethnicity, multilingual societies, ideology of powerful elites, education system and racism build the basis to understand the formation of “negative campaigning”. For Myanmar´s context supremacy of (religious) norms and values, persisting conflicts, multiethnicity, nation-building/national identity, education system, racism, technological standard/development, transformative dynamics, and trust, are most relevant to understanding how Facebook have developed to a most important information platform, already known colloquially as “Fakebook” or “Hatebook”; a facilitator of violent “racist propaganda” in Myanmar´s Rohingya refugee crisis. In Thailand´s Southern conflict connotative context factors such as multi-ethnicity, seniority, culture of agreement, nation-building/national identity, social stratifications/polarizations, supremacy of (religious) norms and values and persisting conflicts highlight why the “information operations” disinformation strategy of the military is mainly accepted. The following discussion presents essential background information to understand which conflict lines condition the forms of disinformation, and how the connotative context factors impact their establishment in Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. The mutually dependent connotative context factors (in italic) are used as explanatory statements/variables to understand the trajectories of the forms of disinformation. Negative Campaigning in Malaysia Leads to On- and Offline Political Violence Negative campaigning is a term James Gomez, a researcher on human rights and the media in Southeast Asia, uses to differentiate the spread of hate and disinformation in the polarized Malay public sphere from common discourses on hate speech (personal communication, 21 March 2017). The term negative campaigning relates to campaigning or advertising during elections but goes further in its meaning. Due to its radicalization negative campaigning is a communicative practice which gives rise to political violence in the media as well as in the streets. In contrast to a political debate or common election advertising this form of negative advertising “is just throwing negative stuff, saying you're bad, you're bad and you're no good, you're not fit for office and you're corrupt…” (J. Gomez, personal communication, 21 March, 2017). James Gomez emphasizes that negative campaigning is not a new phenomenon which results from online platforms, but changes with the use of online communication: So, in the past in Malaysia, negative campaigning was only undertaken by the ruling regime through the print and broadcast media, print in particular. But now with online capacity, both sides take negative campaigning online. As a result, you have very polarized communities online [(echo chambers)] and then it gives rise to offline violence. (personal communication, 21 March, 2017) Winter 2019 | 76