Online campaigns look to discredit popular revolt against regime: research group

By Admin 07 May 2024

DMG Newsroom
7 May 2024, Sittwe

Junta lobbyists are attempting to distort the image of the popular revolt against the regime by targeting ethnic revolutionary organisations, said Burma Affairs and Conflict Study (BACS) in a report on May 4.

They are spreading propaganda against ethnic revolutionary including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Karen National Union, Arakkha Army (AA), Ta’ang National Liberation (TNLA), and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), as well as the People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) that have arisen since the coup, to distract from grave human rights violations committed by the regime, said BACS.

They are particularly using Telegram to carry out the propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting the popular armed revolt.

“They attempted to exaggerate racial tensions and some frictions between those groups,” said the report from BACS, an unabashedly anti-regime research and advocacy organisation.

A dozen pro-junta Telegram channels created over 30 hate speech posts designed to stir hatred between the AA and Muslims last month, according to BACS. They also posted more than 30 posts designed to incite tensions among the TNLA, MNDAA and KIA.

Those posts attempted to exaggerate disputes among the TNLA and MNDAA over administrative control in northern Shan State, and public trial and execution of culprits by the MNDAA, to discredit the armed revolt against the regime. The Muslim issue in Arakan State was also exaggerated for the same purpose, said the report.

As the regime is losing ground on multiple fronts across the country, it has been widely accused of attempting to create racial and religious conflicts to sow discord among ethnic armed organisations.

“The regime does not want to see ethnic revolutionary organisations and People’s Defence Forces working together,”  said a military analyst from Arakan State. 

“As it is suffering heavy defeats in Arakan State, it is inciting racial and religious hatred between Muslim and Arakanese communities not only on the ground but also online. It is doing so to [gain military advantage]. At the same time, it wants to leave Arakan State with racial problems when it can no longer maintain its grip on the state.”

The regime has been suffering from a string of military defeats in many parts of the country since the anti-regime Operation 1027 offensive in northern Shan State was launched in late October.