Seeing Fakes: Digital Literacy and Misinformation Resistance in Myanmar

Misinformation continues to flood Myanmar’s digital space, raising urgent questions about how well people can recognize and resist it. This study, by Intellectum Research Consortium, investigates how digital literacy affects the ability to identify and counter misinformation and hate speech. It also looks at how age, education, gender, and occupation relate to digital literacy—and whether training makes a difference.

The findings show a clear link: people with higher digital literacy are better at spotting false or harmful content. Age and education strongly predict digital literacy levels, while gender and occupation do not. Participants who had received digital literacy or media awareness training performed significantly better, highlighting the value of structured learning in building resilience.

The authors call on policymakers and educators to invest in accessible, locally relevant training for diverse groups. They also recommend future research to track the long-term effects of digital literacy education and test which teaching methods work best. This study builds on Intellectum’s January 2024 report, Dangerous Channels, which mapped the spread of misinformation and hate speech across pro-regime Telegram channels.

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.