A devil named “Hate Speech” Article

By Wadi and Haythar/ MPA

It is mentioned in article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

This is the birthright of everyone in this world. In other words, it is an inherent human right.

But, there are human right violations caused by the misuse of that birthright. That misuse is “Hate Speech”. Hate speeches are mostly seen on the social media of globalization society today.

“Hate Speech” means. . .

“Hate Speech” is very broad to define due to its complexity caused by the emotion of hate. There is no concrete definition of “Hate Speech” in International Human Right Laws.

It is defined in article 19 of “Hate Speech” explained A Toolkit that hate is the intense and irrational emotion of opprobrium, enmity, and detestanion toward an individual or group.

Moreover, any expression imparting opinions or ideas of hate toward an external audience by means of written, non-verbal, visual or artistic and can be disseminated through any media including internet, print, radio or television is called “ Hate Speech”.

It means that “Hate Speech” is an abusive or threatening speech or writing on birthrights of a person such as religion, language, sex, sexual orientations, social origin, ethnicity, color, Race, opinions, national and physical appearance.

“Hate Speech” can be distinguished into 6 categories. They are (1) portrayal as a sinner (2) arbitrary talk (3) dehumanization (4) encouraging violence (5) intimidation and (6) honoring acts of violence and hate speech.

Tip of the iceberg of numbers indicating spread of “Hate Speech” on Myanmar’s social media

Burma Human Right Network (BHRN) is monitoring and releasing reports of “Hate Speech” spread on social media platforms in Myanmar.

BHNR monitors social media accounts, groups and newspapers and journals controlled by State Administration Council (SAC) that are publishing or writing ethnic and religion related “Hate Speech” and reports how many “Hate Speech” are spreaded.

According to reports of BHNR, there are a total of 276 hate speeches, false information and threats after the coup of 2021.

Reports revealed that BHRN monitored 829 hate speeches from January 2022 to June 2023, 699 hate speeches from July to December 2023 and 646 hate speeches from January to June 2024.

So, there are 2,450 hate speeches that BURN monitored and reported in 3 years from January 2021 to June 2024. These numbers of hate speeches are monitored by BHRN alone. There might be hate speeches spread outside of the watch of this organization.

Who are spreading hate speeches the most

Hate speeches spoken with extreme emotion of hate are spreading extensively on social media. Hence, anyone using social media can see, hear and know the topics of hate speeches.

According to the findings of the organizations which monitor hate speeches, they said that the SAC lobbies are spreading hate speeches with intention.

“After the coup, SAC and its supporters spread hate speech targeting ethnic groups, religious minorities, armed revolutionary organizations to minimize the rising pace of revolution as well as to distract from the coup, oppressions on civilians and losses of SAC’s army in armed revolutions and to create disagreements,” monthly reports of hate speech by BHNR mentioned.

SAC lobbies are spreading hate speeches targeting National Unity Government (NUG) and its high ranked officials, People Defense Forces (PDF) of respective areas, Ethnic Resistance Organizations (EROs) and leaders of those organizations and supporters of revolution.

Spread of hate speeches on Telegram

Facebook, Tik Tok, Youtube and Telegram which Myanmar people mostly use are the places where hate speech is spreaded widely.

Among those social media platforms, Telegram in which messages are primarily sent become the most widely used social media. According to Insight Myanmar’s data, Myanmar is one of the 10 most countries that use Telegram and currently there are 6 millions users in Myanmar.

“Telegram is the center of hate speeches spreaded on social media. Other platforms such as Tik Tok, Youtube, X (twitter), Viber and VK are also used to spread hate speeches. Starting from late May, SAC started restrictions on social media and messaging platforms by blocking VPN. But, Telegram and Tik Tok where their supporters mostly use are neglected” a researcher of The Red Flag who monitors hate speeches on social media told MPA.

After the coup, Facebook started to ban SAC’s lobby and propaganda accounts, pages and groups which are not aligned with community standards of Facebook. Thus, SAC’s lobbies moved to Telegram with a massive amount.

Telegram does not have community standards like Facebook so that hate speeches and other dangerous topics are spreading on Telegram without any control. A Telegram channel can be subscribed by 200,000 people so that it becomes a popular hate speech spreading platform.

How hate speeches are spreaded on Telegram

All 6 types of hate speeches mentioned above can be found on Telegram. To describe it obviously, hate speeches encouraged to Violence are becoming more powerful in this year.

“Forces of MADAA occupied Yaykantaung, Office of Forest Department, highway gate, no.1 ward, no.8 ward, no.5 ward, and Narrma Shwetaunggyar of Lashio. They are planning for Urban welfare. Please launch many airstrikes in that area,” Mhine Wai Telegram Channel wrote on 23 July.

“Please launch an airstrike on Maungbway village between Minbya and Mrauk-U either (to exterminate the lives of dogs)” MMC news, SAC’s lobby Telegram Channel wrote on 14 July.

During the combats between SAC’s Army, and Ethnic Resistance Forces and People Defense Forces, SAC lobbyists are requesting frequently to operate airstrikes on populated villages and wards with extreme hate.

It is found out that SAC’s lobbyists are also spreading hate speech intentionally to prompt hatred between different ethnic groups, and between different religions rather than violences in Telegram.

“The second Ko Ni or Muslim Kalar (racist word referred to muslim minorities) Nay Than Maung is scamming Ni Painn (racist word referred to supporters of National League of Democracy (NLD) )” a Telegram Channel named Myanmar National Post wrote hate speech with the photo of U Nay Than Maung, former head editor of Kamayut Media.

“Hate speeches once had changed to provoke hatred between two ethnic groups. For example, between Ta’ang and Shan, between Kachin and Shan Ni as well as between Burmese and other ethnic groups. The second form is provoking hatred between two different religions. They provoke hatred between Buddhism and Muslim. Surprisingly, They attacked Christian due to the losses of SAC’s army to EROs. Because some EROs and ethnic groups are Christians,’ a researcher of The Red Flag who monitors hate speeches on social media said.

When a SAC’s lobby channel writes a post of hate speeches, other channels copy and share. They are working like this as a group. By this way, hate speeches are spreaded by multiplication.

According to the result of monitoring on Telegram Channels by MPA, channels such as “Ko Thet”, “Mhine Wai’, “Snow Queen”, “Kyaw Swar”, “Colonal Chit Kaung”, “Ba Nyunt”, and “ Tha Zin Oo” are powerful spreaders of hate speeches in Telegram currently. Moreover, over 100 SAC’s lobby channels are spreading hate speeches. SAC’s lobbyists spread hate speeches by group rather than individually, according to the monitors.

“Han Nyain Oo, Kyae Swar, Ba Nyunt, these are just using the name of a person. Actually, Han Nyain Oo is just a brand name. Similarly , Kyaw Swar and Ba Nyunt are the same. There are teams behind these brands. They admitted themselves. They opened a lot of secondary channels, too. They usually advertise those new channels as “please join this sister’s channel as well” pretending like those channels do not relate to them. Actually, those new channels are already connected with them. These channels are lying and trying to manipulate the people. What kind of man will do and can do these things voluntarily everyday. I am sure that SAC supporters have been attacking with intention strategically and collectively for many years,” a researcher of The Red Flag who monitors hate speeches on social media explained.

Myanmar people, who are using social media where hate speeches spread are common, are facing dangerous information.

Significant impacts of hate speeches on n-ground

SAC’s lobby channels usually use the hate speech “Pa Dat” to refer to PDFs. They encouraged the arrest and killing of PDFs with hate speeches.

On 7 November 2023, Pyu Saw Htee militia (supporters of SAC) burned 2 PDFs captured from North Khin Yan village with the caption “ We grill 2 Pa Dats”. This event highlighted the capability and impact of hate speeches on on- ground.

Similarly, some civilians are actually arrested due to the urge of SAC’s lobbyists with hate speech “ PDF supporter Ni Painn”.

Even though everyone has the right to express their opinion freely, hate speeches are spreading with the cover of freedom of expression. Therefore, it is crucial not to talk and distribute hate speeches.

Hate is an emotion. It is a concept of mind which is strong and powerful, too. Hate speeches are born when the hate inside the mind is expressed on social media. There is a concept that hate speech convinces people to actually commit in real life.

We have seen very dangerous events happened in the past due to hate speeches.