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from the peace process, despite being deeply affected by it, young people are catalysts for social change. As the minds of the future, educating the youth on social issues that affect them can play a significant role in preventing them from turning to violence, and engaging them in peacebuilding efforts means that the community is more likely to achieve long-term peace.5 It was important to develop a research topic that would support peacebuilding efforts of Smile and to consider the organisations objectives. To best achieve this I read through the organization’s strategic plan from 2015 and discussed with Smile what current projects they were working on, and where it would be most useful to have further research conducted. Additionally, I utilized my past experience studying both religion as an undergraduate and peacebuilding as a postgraduate to make this decision. It was decided that this project will aim to understand issues that often surround hate speech, counteracting hate speech, and the influence that hate speech can have on the young people. Successful counter narratives are important in breaking down barriers and negative stereotypes between ethnic and religious groups initiated and maintained through hate speech. This focus will fit in with Smile’s goals as the organisation aims to promote religious freedom by empowering citizens to fight for social change, and to find effective methods to countering religious hate speech. Secondary Data The next step to my research was to look at a range of existing data concerning hate speech and social media. Secondary data helped to generate further research questions and develop research assumptions that will be tested in the new research process. As Tony Whitehead stresses in his paper Basic Classical Ethnographic Research Methods, it is important to explore all we can about a topic or population 5 Jamal, R., (2015) ‘Young people call on UN to recognise their role as peace-builders’, The Guardian, available at: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/aug/24/young-people-call-on-unrecognise-role-peace-builders-global-forum-youth [October 2015]. -8-

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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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Myanmar Internet Project

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

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