3 release Guidelines for the Prevention of Transmission of Undesirable Bulk Content/Messages Via Electronic Communications Networks 166 in October 2012, which then applied to all mobile network operators in the country. See: IHRB, Corporate Responses to Hate Speech in the 2013 Kenya Presidential Elections. Case Study: Safaricom (2013) ICTs and the Forthcoming Elections ICTs have played a key role in sparking democratic movements. Governments have sometimes responded by shutting down all or parts of networks, as happened during the 2007 Saffron Revolution in Myanmar and the 2011 Arab Spring in Egypt. But ICTs have also been implicated in incitement of violence (see Kenya case study, Table 30). Governments in many countries have proposed imposing other restrictions that can have widespread impacts on users. With elections due in November 2015, social media will facilitate political discourse. While social media have been shown increase a user’s exposure to diverse viewpoints 167 in some cases it has been found to do the opposite. A recent study of the diffusion of information over social media for U.S. voters found that “voters of all groups are disproportionately exposed to like-minded information”. 168 Many social media platforms are designed to surface information that is “relevant to users” based on their social media contacts, ‘Liked’ or ‘followed’ pages, and reading habits. 169 For example, in a Myanmar context the Facebook followers of controversial monk U Wirathu are most likely Friends or followers of like-minded individuals. This could result in statements classified as dangerous speech (statements which could provoke an emotional response) spreading at a rapid pace. See also Chapter 4.2 on Hate Speech. Cultural Impacts Localisation and Access to Information The successful realisation of positive sector-level impacts ranging from economic growth, e-governance and social inclusion depends on increasing access to information to allow the full range of Myanmar’s population to participate in Myanmar’s growing ‘information society’. To support that participation, ICTs must be localised for Myanmar users. This ‘localisation’ means adapting technology to support a user’s local language and culture. 166 Communications Commission of Kenya, “Guidelines for the Prevention of Transmission of Undesirable Bulk Political Content via electronic Communications Networks” (August 2012). 167 Pablo Barberá “How Social Media Reduces Mass Political Polarisation: Evidence from Germany, Spain, and the U.S.” (October 2014). 168 Yosh Halberstam, Brian Knight, “Homophily, Group Size, and the Diffusion of Political Information in Social Networks: Evidence from Twitter” (November 2014). 169 On April 21, 2015 Facebook announced changes to its news feed designed to prioritise content that was relevant to users. See “News Feed FYI: Balancing Content from Friends and Pages” (April 2015). 104 PAGE CHAPTER 3: SECTOR-LEVEL IMPACTS