Dangerous Channels: Online Misinformation in Post-Coup Myanmar

Pro-regime social media channels have become key tools of digital repression in post-coup Myanmar—spreading disinformation, hate speech, and doxing campaigns that fuel fear, arrests, and violence. This study especially investigates the spread of “malinformation”: content that blends fact with distortion to manipulate and intimidate.

Researchers analyzed five major pro-military Telegram channels and found that roughly 30% of posts qualified as malinformation. These often glorify military retaliation, distort key events, and promote one-sided narratives. Doxing is frequent, with at least 16 documented cases leading to arrests and serious harm.

The study calls for stronger platform accountability, especially from Telegram, and support for fact-checkers, digital monitors, and literacy programs to confront this growing threat to safety and social cohesion.

This study is part of the Myanmar Digital Research series published by Knowledge for Democracy Myanmar (K4DM) with support from International Development Research Centre and The SecDev Foundation.