8 Blue Shirt Initiative Inside Social Media: The Blue Shirt’s Social Media Observation 2 METHODOLOGY To have a better understanding of how messages on social media platforms were shaping the general public’s Identifying Facebook pages and Telegram channels: By using 63 keywords and 105 hashtags related to the ongoing opinions of the current political conflicts, we decided to collect messages posted on the platforms by various political crisis or politics, we were able to include 1,863 Facebook pages and 960 Telegram channels that were political actors and analyze the content of the messages. A total of 2,307 posts and 200 messages with the considered politically active. Based on that, 1,863 Facebook pages and 150 Telegram channels1 were included in highest interactions from 207 Facebook pages and 24 Telegram channels were collected to analyze in August our observation. 2024. We tried to measure the impact of messages by both quantifying the interaction rate and the type of the content itself. Therefore, we decided to collect the posts and messages that received the highest interactions Selecting Facebook posts and Telegram messages: By using Crowd Tangle API and Telegram API, we integrated among the social media users ranging from the highest to 1,000 total interactions on Facebook and 50 most FB posts and Telegram messages into the BSI’s customized software namely “Chay-Lann”. All Facebook posts viewers' messages on Telegram during our observation. With the highest interactions, we believe those posts and with interactions ranging from the highest to 1,000 total interactions2 and the top 50 messages with the most messages had a significant impact on public opinion, either negatively or positively. In this observation, instead viewers on Telegram, were selected weekly for analysis. A total of 2,307 Facebook posts and 200 messages from of merely mapping out the messages posted on social media, we decided to seek out messages that contribute Telegram channels were collected during this observation. to societal values whether they promote liberal and democratic values or divide society by promoting hate speech and violence, and examine how citizens were mobilized and specific means to resolve the current political and armed conflicts. One caveat is that since we are focusing on social media platforms, the findings only reflect activities within this ecosystem and may not necessarily represent what is happening on the ground. Posts with contents of other political issues 48 Posts with contents of BSI 293 Messages with contents of other political issues 34 Messages with contents of BSI 43 About Blue Shirt Initiative Facebook Total Posts 2,307 Telegram Total Messages 200 Other issues 1,966 Other issues 123 The Blue Shirt Initiative is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization working to build democratic values and strengthen democratic institutions in Myanmar through research and education. Upholding the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Blue Shirt conducts its work regardless of race, religion, and gender. Currently, Blue Shirt is conducting social media research focusing on political communication and information ecosystem, and surveys aimed to have a better understanding of citizens' perceptions. Fig-23. Content of the posts or messages (Overall) Get more about the Blue Shirt. Research period: August, 2024 To ensure social media platforms serve as a marketplace for ideas or a unifier for society and to understand how Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BlueShirtInitiative Website - https://blueshirtinitiative.org Email - info@blueshirtinitiative.org key stakeholders had shaped public opinion regarding the current political crisis, the messages related to the following key areas or contents were observed; (A) Citizen participation and citizens’ mobilization, (B) Military means and violence, (C) Social division and hatred (D) Federalism and political solutions and, (E) Message concerning liberal and democratic values. 1 We only monitored 150 of the highest subscriber channels on Telegram. 2 For media pages, the nature of interaction differs from that of other pages, so only the 10 posts with the highest total interactions were analyzed on Facebook.