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of members of racial and ethnic minorities by Benjamin Nathaniel Smith in 1999, a devoted follower of the white supremacist website World Church of the Creator.16 Waldron’s concern in The Harm in Hate Speech is not about hate speech as motivation to certain actions; the real problem, he argues, is ‘the predicament of vulnerable people who are subject to hatred directed at their race, ethnicity, or religion.’ 17 These vulnerable members of the community are minorities who have been hated or outcast from society in the recent past, such as the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar. To be protected and treated as equals in everyday life would be an assurance that confirms their membership of society. This is what Waldron calls their dignity – it is their right to live their lives and go about their business without being undermined by the publication of hate speech. Waldron’s book suggests that legal restrictions would be one of the best ways to protect the dignity of minority groups. However, this study aims to evaluate the most successful methods of prevention and intervention to deal with the problem within society, as oppose to legally preventing hate speech. Therefore it was decided to bring in Foxman and Wold’s Viral Hate: Containing Its Spread on the Internet which goes further than just highlighting the consequences of hate speech by offering noteworthy methods to counter the problem. Usefully for this study, Foxman and Wolf advocate a proactive attitude towards fighting hate speech which this thesis will also adopt; they believe we should not sit back and let it happen. Foxman and Wolf are adamant that ‘laws addressed at Internet hate are perhaps the least effective way to deal with the problem.’18 As they point out, the prosecution of online hate speech in one country is a futile act when the speech can re-appear somewhere else on the borderless internet.19 Instead of implementing additional laws, they stress the importance of existing laws, education, 16 Foxman and Wolf, (2013) p.23. 17 Waldron, J., (2012) The Harm in Hate Speech, Harvard University Press, p.37. 18 Foxman and Wolf, (2013) p.60. 19 Foxman and Wolf, (2013) p.82. - 14 -

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Religion, hate speech and social media in Myanmar: Analysing methods of intervention

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Language

English

Topic

Hate Speech
Rohingya Crisis

Author(s)

Bethany Davis

Date Published: Dec 1, 2015

Abstract: Myanmar is home to one of the longest running intrastate conflicts in the world, involving a series of ethnic and religious clashes that have caused harm to all parties involved. The ideology of a homogeneity based on Buddhism and the Bamar ethnicity has marginalized minority groups, which make up a third of the population, and has particularly affected the Rakhine state’s Buddhist and Muslim communities, the latter of which are subject to what international human rights organizations are calling an ethnic cleansing. Since the government relaxed restrictions to the access of foreign websites, the social media site Facebook has become a popular means to disseminate misinformation and rumours, and this has created mistrust and hatred against Muslims across the country, heightening the polarization between Buddhist and Muslim groups. This study will combine conflict analysis with the assessment of different approaches of countering hate speech to propose which methods of intervention are most suitable for this situation in Myanmar. Lederach argues that to counter hatred and avoid reoccurrence of violence, deep alterations of the parties’ relationships is needed. This idea forms the basis for chapter three which examines educational methods, interfaith projects and social media campaigns to both prevent and change negative attitudes towards the religious ‘Other’. It argues that education and awareness campaigns are more effective than the implementation of legal regulation as we need to combat the underlying issue. In addition to secondary sources, this study involved field research to collect information about how the youth are influence by hate speech and counter hate campaigns in Myanmar.

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Religion, hate speech and social media in Myanmar: Analysing methods of intervention

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