Myochit Migration from Facebook

The big news of the week, of course, is Min Aung Hlaing was banned from Facebook, the most popular social media platform in Burma. Some Burma-based journalists seem to have the impression that UN accusing the military generals including Min Aung Hlaing of the genocide is a more important news. Let’s be real. The military leaders are never going to be punished for the crimes they did as long as the UN does not have an enforcement agency. On the other hand, not being able to log on to social media and post your daily propaganda hurts your ego and ability to change public opinion. But the military is adapting well.

One day after the Facebook ban, it is reported in international media that Min Aung Hlaing went to a Russian social media site, VKontakte. According to my observation, this celebrity Myochit started posting it on his blog on how to respond “Facebook’s insult”. He posted photos with detailed instruction on how to use the site. He already has nearly 7,000 followers on this VK account, Sergeant Pho Si. Min Aung Hlaing, of course, has the most impressive number with over 19,000 followers. But let’s just not be too hyped. Among his followers, there are certainly Russians (either bots or just curious Russians trying to make friends with a strange group of people suddenly appearing on their platform).

(Some seemingly Russian followers of Ming Aung Hlaing’s VK page)

I know what you are thinking – hate speech. No doubt the reason Myochit are migrating to this Russian platform is the Facebook’s tightening of its policy. That means they are now spreading their hate freely on the site without any moderation. Win Ko Ko Lat, a big myochit that has always been on my watch list, posted his video denying the existence of Rohingya and calling them ‘kalars from Bangladesh’. One user posted “there is no dog species called Rohingya”

Perhaps the biggest surprise, so far in browsing through the site, is that several media outlets has decided to open their pages here to serve the new Burmese audiences. The list includes Eleven, Yangon Media Group, a media conglomerate, and even the Myanma Alin, a state-run Burmese newspaper. I cannot confirm if they are legit pages opened by the news outlets themselves but they are updating news quite frequently. We still need to take the legibility of those pages with a pinch of salt. Lulu Aung, my favorite fitness model (hey, I like her for her fashion!) has a page (may be NSFW) on VK. I called her manager who told me they did not open a page there. So there’s that.

A Burma-based Social Networking site?

That would be a nightmare for journalists and citizens. Perhaps it is potentially worse and more evil than this Russian Facebook Myochit are liking. Just days ago, all the Myochit are discussing the need for a social media site run for and by Burmese. This suggestion was published in Bullet Journal, run by ‘Bullet’ Hla Swe. The writer suggested the government to shutdown Facebook after this imaginary social media site has been created to force people to use – going full CPC in other words.

To borrow the term of my friend, Kirt, the carpetbaggers are everywhere and Burmese IT guys are not an exception. There is this managing director of mmsocial.net (not working yet) making noise in the media the importance of Burmese-owned social networking site. He recently announced on Facebook that his social media site will be launched on 2^nd September. With all the Myochit migrating to VK, he wants to capitalize this opportunity for sweet sweet ad money.

Can his invention be eviler than Facebook’s ongoing Cambridge Analytica scandal? Too early to tell but here is the gist. According to their mission, they want to stop “unfair management” (of Facebook in cracking down the Myochit), stop “loss of the government’s revenue in tax” and to keep information from flowing to foreign intelligence. No mention of control on hate speech.

And one thing is for sure. Min Aung Hlaing will get his page running in the first ever Burmese-run social media site. The managing director of the new site criticized the Facebook decision to get rid of Ming Aung Hlaing and other military-related pages. He said we will be “interfered as long as we use a foreign social media site”.