The Problem

There has been a massive increase in accessibility to technology such as mobile phones, computers, internet, social media, etc., particularly in underdeveloped countries. The drastic change in the technological landscape has left these countries unprepared to handle the negative consequences of unmonitored mass communication that enables hate speech. A lack of a rich media environment and democratic infrastructure has exasperated many of the already existing tensions in conflict-fragile countries, allowing these tensions to quickly expand into mass amounts of violence.

Many have argued that this rapid growth of media technology contributed to the ethnic cleansing that occurred in Myanmar in 2017. In 2013, Myanmar went from very little media technology to virtually every citizen owning or having access to social media. Hate speech against the minority Rohingya was rampant on platforms such as Facebook, but the lack of diverse media to create alternative narratives or democratic infrastructure to legally address these issues left the hate speech unchecked. Many argue that this contributed to the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, as well as other global conflicts.