100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% OCT Facebook Pinterest NOV DEC YouTube JAN FEB Twitter MAR APR MAY VKontakte JUN Tumblr JUL AUG SEPT Instagram Other Figure 3: Social media use across several platforms between September 2020 and September 2021. A significant dip in Facebook use was seen following crackdown and arrests of protestors and those posting anti-coup content online. Source: StatCounter.com freedom from fear – but too many people are being arrested or detained for just speaking out – it’s a very risky situation, so I found that I’ve posted less and deleted some of my posts, I know that a lot of people have done the same.” (FGD_05) (Female) Focus group respondents from Rakhine State have reported instances of having local authority representatives showing up at their houses asking them to take down particular online posts. Participants have also reported receiving messages on various devices based on their social media activity, or being tracked down at their locations, at times, within 1-2 days of online activity. Messages received have included various forms of harassment, and direct threats. “Lately there has been a lot of call for charity online and at first most of them were reliable, but recently things are very different, and military tend to pretend that they are part of the charity group.” (FGD_05) “They will contact you and try to get the information from you, they even try to get money from you. They will try to get your attention by sharing what you are posting. Some informers try to pretend they are donating to refugees or the revolution and try to get you Participants identified a less direct way in which they are being targeting, using fake identities. 25

Select target paragraph3