January 2024 – Digital Hate Monthly Report (Eng -Myan)
A total of 108 hate speech cases were found during BHRN’s monitoring process this month. When Facebook accounts were disabled, some created new accounts and some moved to Telegram channels. The military mainly used Telegram channels to spread hate speeches and the hate speeches were done through the cartoons more in this month.
Hate speech targets and expressions
In this month’s monitoring, the group targeted by hate speech the most was PDF and the second was AA and the third was NUG. Moreover, hate speeches targeting Rohingyas and ethnic groups were monitored as well.
In addition, the most used terms of hate speeches for this month are “dog, kelwar (a word used to call a dog in Rakhine State), terrorist, Ben people (referring to Bengali/Rohingya), illegal Bengali, Bengali with high reproductive rate, Kalar (a derogatory term referring to Muslim), extremist Christian.”
