under the 2003 junta-drafted “Roadmap to Discipline-flourishing Democracy”. Once Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy assumed power, the team began tracking the NLD government’s handling of the economy, sector by sector, he said. In December 2018, the team turned its focus to the coming election, writing a daily briefing on media coverage of the party for Nandar Hla Myint. Now, he said, “the team is divided into two groups; one monitors Facebook for hate speech and fake news about the USDP, and the other monitors print and digital reporting on current issues.” He expects the team to play a critical role in developing USDP strategy in what is expected to be a fierce campaign. Their salaries suggest as much. Ma Zar Chi Linn, 28, a graduate of the University of Computer Studies in Yangon, said her salary doubled when she moved from the USDP youth team to the research team in January 2019. She declined to give an exact amount, but staff at the central office said research team members are paid between K300,000 and K500,000 a month, depending on their position – significantly higher wages than in other departments due to the importance of the work, they said. Zar Chi Linn monitors hate speech for the party and helps party leaders get the blue tick that marks them as “verified” on Facebook. “Facebook contacted us two months ago to discuss providing the verification mark for party leaders’ pages and personal accounts. The official party page was verified in the beginning of 2020,” Zar Chi Linn told Frontier in July. Any USDP-targeted hate speech or fake news that researchers find they send to party leaders, who respond with corrections via the party’s official Facebook page. That response is then shared with the party’s township branch pages and other Facebook groups aligned with the party. A USDP social media manager who spoke on condition of anonymity said the party has 91 township branch pages.