Victoire Rio The Role of Social Media in Fomenting Violence: Myanmar 5 Myanmar people were hungry for entertainment and information and quickly became avid Facebook users. Media and entertainment companies responded by investing heavily in digital content production. Services, which would normally be found on websites or apps, also started leveraging Facebook, turning the platform into a one stop shop for finding hotels, restaurants, booking bus tickets, engaging in online shopping and even booking doctor appointments. As most services and most content in the various Myanmar languages resided on Facebook, the broader web did not gain much traction – a phenomenon further explained by the fact that most Myanmar users had little or no experience with web browsers. Facebook’s growing dominance of Myanmar’s information ecosystem was further supported by the offering of Free Basics, the free version of Facebook, from 2016 to 2017, and the integration of Facebook and Messenger, which quickly became a favourite for instant communication. So important is Facebook to the Myanmar information ecosystem that the news of the resignation of President Htin Kyaw, in March 2018, was first broken on the Myanmar President Office Facebook page and his successor’s election organised as a Facebook event by the parliament. Myanmar President Office first publishes the Union Parliament of Myanmar sets up an statement of resignation of President Htin Kyaw event for the election of the new president on 28 on Facebook on 11 March 2018 at 10:41am March 2018.