attacks against Muslims, women and LGBT people on popular social media websites. 283 The increasing anti-Muslim rhetoric has been particularly prevalent since the outbreak of inter-communal violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine State during 2012. While there are not many user-generated platforms currently operating in Myanmar, there are currently over three million users of Facebook, the most popular social media platform, and 12 million users of Viber, the most popular messaging app 284 , with the market likely to dramatically expand. The well-known activist Nay Phone Latt, himself imprisoned under the previous government and now leader of the free speech organisation Myanmar ICT Development Organisation (MIDO) 285 and the anti-“hate speech” campaign Panzagar, 286 has expressed concern that “hate speech” (see below) is damaging new-found freedom of expression in Myanmar. He is concerned that the Government will try to tackle it by creating new laws that may result in further restrictions on freedom of expression. In an April 2014 interview with Myanmar magazine Irrawaddy Nay Phone Latt said: “I don’t want to ask the government to control hate speech because if they control the hate speech, they will want to control all [opinions]. So it can harm freedom of expression. I prefer to monitor hate speech and report about that than limiting it through law.” 287 This highlights the difficulties faced in finding the right balance between protecting those who are subject to hate speech and discouraging governments from extending restrictions to other types of speech a government might find offensive, such as criticism. The risk in opening the door to such restrictions may be particularly high in countries like Myanmar with a history of suppression of free speech. Civil society is justifiably concerned about giving up new and hard fought freedoms of expression. What is said online does have the potential to spill over into real world violence. In July 2014, riots broke out in Mandalay following unconfirmed reports circulated online that a Buddhist woman was raped by Muslims. 288 Such reports proved to be false, but one Muslim and one Buddhist were killed during the violence. While President Thein Sein has publicly condemned the violence, and committed to take action against those who allegedly perpetrated it, 289 the authorities have not done enough to prevent and quash inter-communal violence and violence against Muslims. After the 2012 violence in Rakhine State, international human rights groups reported that the security forces stood by and did not adequately protect Muslims against Buddhist violence, nor did they sufficiently condemn such actions. 290 While some parts of Myanmar civil society are taking action to promote interfaith harmony, 291 they have received anonymous threats via SMS on their phones. 283 Inter-communal violence between Buddhists and the Muslim Rohingya minority broke out in Rakhine State during 2012, killing 250 people and displacing almost 140,000 people, most of them Muslims. Al Jazeera English “Facebook in Myanmar Amplifying Hate Speech?” (14 June 2014). 284 DVB, Viber Leads the Apps for Myanmar Activists, But Is It Safe To Share? (10 August 2015). 285 See: http://myanmarido.org/en 286 See: https://www.facebook.com/supportflowerspeech 287 San Yamin Aung, The Irrawaddy Hate Speech Pours Poison Into The Heart (9th April 2014) 288 Thomas Fuller, New York Times, Mandalay’s Chinese Muslims Chilled By Riots (12th July 2014 ) 289 The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, President Office, President U Thein Sein Appreciates Communal Unity in Mandalay, (7 July 2014) 290 See for example, Human Rights Watch, All You Can Do Is Pray (April 2013) p 10 and 15; and p 83 for government response to the violence. 291 Samantha Michaels, Irrawaddy, In Burma, Mixed Reactions to Suu Kyi’s BBC Statements (25 Oct 2013) CHAPTER 4.2: HATE SPEECH 141 4 4.2