easier on the one hand, due to the number of sources, and more difficult on the other, because journalists cannot easily travel and have no access to official responses from the state.188 As independent media have become harder to access online, and only the propaganda of state-controlled media is available on television and radio, false and misleading information about the state’s activities has become more common (see B5). Particularly prevalent rumors on Facebook have addressed the status of detained state counsellor and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi,189 impending internet shutdowns,190 bank fraud,191 the likelihood of violent crackdowns by the military,192 deepfake technology,193 and the role of China’s government in supporting the coup.194 Some false rumors, such as those about Aung San Suu Kyi, have resulted in large public reactions before being dispelled.195 Unintentional misinformation that reflects poor digital literacy or a lack of available and trustworthy information has spread alongside propaganda and disinformation. The state’s censorship efforts had affected the diversity of online content produced by independent sources in the years prior to the coup. For example, in 2019 the military requested that the media refrain from saying “civil war” when referring to the country’s internal conflicts.196 In 2017, the government ordered that all media use the term “terrorist” instead of “insurgent” or “militant” when referring to Rohingya rebels.197 Also in 2017, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) announced that it would end its partnership with MNTV after the network repeatedly pulled BBC programs, apparently for using government-restricted words like “Rohingya,” according to some analysts.198 In June 2018, US-backed Radio Free Asia (RFA) canceled its partnership with the Democratic Voice of Burma after the government repeatedly attempted to censor the word “Rohingya” on its programs, which aired on state television.199 RFA, however, reported that it would still cover Myanmar in other formats.200 The dominance of Facebook as the main channel for internet use in Myanmar has severely undermined diversity of information online, particularly since it has been blocked. The most-visited websites in Myanmar in 2020 were Google, YouTube, and Facebook.201 However, a staggering 78 percent of users had never used an internet browser or app stores as of 2020, with most users accessing the internet via Facebook apps on their mobile phones.202 The most popular Facebook pages were mostly run by media outlets, some of which were foreign.203 B8: အထ=းသြဖင့် [ိင & င ် ေ ံ ရး[.င ့် လ=မ1ေရးကိစ~ရပ်များ[.င ့် ပတ်သ က်၍ အသံး& ြပ$သ=များ၏ လ1ပ်F.ားေဆာင်ရွက်ြခင်း၊ အစ&အဖွဲW ၂ မ.တ် တည်ေထာင်ြခင်း စည်းံ&းလ1ံWေဆာ်ြခင်း စသည့်တိ& လ& ိ& ်စွမ်းကိ& အေြခအေနအရပ်ရပ်က တားဆီးေနပါသလား။ (၀-၆ မ.တ)် ့ ပ်[င B8: Do conditions impede users’ ability to mobilize, form communities, and campaign, particularly on political and social issues? (0–6 points) Score Change: The score declined from 4 to 2 because the military erected extreme and varied obstacles to online mobilization in a bid to quash anticoup protests, though users continued their attempts to mobilize using digital tools during parts of the coverage period. The military has tried to significantly impede the people’s ability to associate or assemble in opposition to its seizure of power. On the first day of the coup, the military shut down internet service to prevent the free flow of information.204 The next day, the nationwide 2 civil disobedience movement was launched by medical workers on Facebook.205 As the protests and civil disobedience movement grew, the military ordered telecommunications companies to block Facebook and other communications platforms, and when users circumvented those blocks, the military instructed telecommunications companies to shut down the internet entirely for most people (see A3).206 Despite the restrictions, people continued to use online tools to organize and share information whenever Free Expression Myanmar (FEM) and Freedom House - Freedom of the Net: Myanmar - အင်တာနက်ေပ*တွင် လွတ်လပ်မ/ - ြမန်မာ2ိ4င်ငံ - Page 16