Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar against Muslims in particular. However, some urban participants from Kayah State said that although their views of Muslims had been negatively influenced by fake news in the past, realising that the news was fake and meeting Muslim people in person had changed their perceptions of them for the better. Hate speech There was some confusion among young people about the difference between hate speech and harassment, particularly in Kayah State, where some rural participants reported having not come across examples of either. However, this may have been because young people were often reluctant to talk about examples of hate speech they had seen. Facilitators observed that young people living in urban areas of Rakhine State were selective in the kinds of hate speech they spoke about (e.g., often avoiding talking about conflict between Rakhine and Muslims). In addition, participants frequently conflated hate speech and fake news. One explanation for this is that fake news often functions as hate speech in Myanmar, in that false news reports are made with the intention of vilifying a particular group. In this way, hate speech often takes the form of fake news about specific groups, from political parties to ethnic minority groups to spread fear, entrench negative stereotypes, and further a particular agenda. Given this, the distinction between hate speech and fake news should itself be problematised in Myanmar. hile there were examples of political hate speech, (e.g., NLD versus USDP, anti-Arakan Army), and urban versus rural hate speech (identified by both rural and urban respondents), most examples of hate speech were related to religion and/or ethnicity. The most common targets of hate speech were Rohingya Muslims, who often saw posts saying they do not belong in Myanmar, calling them ‘Kalar’ and discussing and inciting hatred and violence against them. As such, Muslim IDP young people were the most impacted by hate speech, saying that it had been largely responsible for them having to live in IDP camps. Christians also mentioned being the victims of hate speech and fake news perpetrated by Buddhists who believe that Christians, like Rohingya, don’t belong in Myanmar. Maramagyi young people were also racially discriminated against, and often called ‘Kalar’ by the Rakhine community due to their perceived similar appearance to Rohingya and other South Asian ethnicities. Many Chin young people also feel marginalised and discriminated against by the Rakhine community, who in turn feel discriminated against by the Bamar community. Some young people were aware that third parties were using hate speech and fake news to stir tension and division between other ethnic groups (e.g., Kayah and Kayan). Young people were aware that besides making minority ethnic groups feel marginalised, online hate speech can lead to offline conflict. Hate speech and propaganda (e.g., ISIS beheading videos) had also been used to stir a fear of Muslims, with reports of hysterical panic whenever it was suggested that Muslims may be nearby. It seemed that a fear of potential offline consequences was the reason some young people and adults actively denied seeing hate speech against them, particularly Muslim IDP participants. Very few participants had come across anti-hate speech campaigns (e.g., Panzagar) either online or offline, however some noted that there were influential individuals who made efforts to counter and stop the spread of hate speech online (e.g., Wai Han Aung). Online harassment One of the most concerning themes to arise from the current study was the prevalence of sexual harassment of girls (and some boys), which was the most common online threat identified by young people. Perpetrators of harassment were usually male strangers who tried to form relationships with young girls, send inappropriate sexual content, or extort them for money, naked photos, or declarations of reciprocal love (usually by threatening to misuse or photoshop their images and post on social media). There were also many examples of blackmail, defamation and image-based abuse by ex-boyfriends following a break-up. A few Rakhine boys reported similar harassment from male predators from the Rakhine community. In addition to harassment on social media, some girls (particularly from IDP camps) reported receiving harassing phone calls from strangers trying to form romantic or sexual relationships with them. They would then change their sim cards because they did not know how to use the block feature on their phone. Victims of harassment reported being scared of offending their perpetrator and escalating the situation. As a result, they were wary of accepting friend requests from males they did not know on Facebook (something that it seemed 96