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Another election is being overrun by Facebook hate speech, misinformation, and false claims of election fraud by the country's strong man: Myanmar's which goes to the polls on Nov 8. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-election-facebook/spreading-like-wildfire-facebook-fights-hate-speech-before-myanmar-poll-idUSKBN27L300 Our story with @poppymcp
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Minority politicians are being targeted by hate speech and false claims. Civil society groups have found dozens of networks of accounts, pages, and groups spreading ethnically and religiously charged falsehoods that they fear could lead to strife and undermine the election.
One of the politicians we spoke to, Sithu Maung, receives torrent of hate speech & threats. Some posts came from a network Facebook traced to members of the army last month.
I found copycat pages of the ones from the military-linked network Facebook took down, as well as a + dozen pages and counts running military propaganda, including on Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (who is banned from FB) and criticism of the NLD.
Facebook taken 14 such pages down we flagged that would post simultaneous posts how the army (known as the Tadmadaw) is feeding people during COVID, their role in safeguarding the country, etc.
Many of the photos & text came from the Tadmadaw's official "True News Information Team", which has the exceptional name of http://DSINFO.ORG (which watermarks its photos with it. (cc @poppymcp )
Other pages would post direct hate speech and fake news. It wasn't all in favor of the military, a lot of targeted other parties, showing several political actors are behind the networks. Separate posts targeting the NLD & USDP below.The constant victim in this are minorities.
We are incredibly indebted to the researchers at the @MTAN_network , which does vital research on social media in Myanmar and has been documenting the online hate speech & misinformation at a much wider scale than this, looking at how it's being amplified by inauthentic networks.
In the words of @myatthu_ & @riovictoire: "A lot of these problematic narratives appear to be intentionally planted, and can be traced back to accounts, pages and groups, which are repetitively involved in hate speech and disinformation"
Facebook has been working to take down inauthentic pages and networks. However, a big issue is that despite its advertising policy requiring disclaimers for political ads, many pages are blatantly breaking ignoring this while running ads promoting the army, ASSK, parties..
@myatthu_ find several instances of copycat pages of the ones in the military network take-down that were recreated with the same names and pix & able to run ads to rebuild their audiences: https://twitter.com/myatthu_/status/1323631315917234177
Ominously, many of the inauthentic pages & accounts I tracked shared the same clip of General Min Aung Hlaing alleging (without proof) government fraud in the election preparation and warning the army is watching. He may be banned off FB, but his message is being amplified
We are likely building to an election where the military will challenge the legitimacy of the results. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/myanmar-army-chief-accuses-government-of-unacceptable-mistakes-13455630
So the election in Myanmar will be one to watch closely but the levels of hate speech & misinformation being spread are worrisome, in a country that has a history of riots and violence being sparked by online fake news, including during the deadly Mandalay riots.
Our thanks as well to @Phandeeyar for sharing their research on hate speech on social media. The content is “spreading like wildfire," @kaliebe told us.