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SMSXXX10.1177/20563051241228603Social Media <span class="symbol" cstyle="Mathematical">+</span> SocietyAnsar and Maitra

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Social Media + Society

Digital Diaspora Activism at the Margins:

January-March 2024: 1­–16
© The Author(s) 2024
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DOI: 10.1177/20563051241228603
https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241228603

on Facebook (2017–2022) journals.sagepub.com/home/sms

Anas Ansar1 and Julian Maitra2

Abstract
This study maps the Rohingya diaspora’s digital engagement on Facebook and explores how their participation has
transformed over the years. Using the CrowdTangle analytics platform, this mixed-methods study presents the Rohingya
community’s collective engagement on Facebook across six years, from January 2017 to December 2022. It comprises 47
Rohingya diaspora FB pages that published 34,905 posts and received nearly 8 million user interactions. Revealing their yearly
transformation in interactions on Facebook, this study uncovers their contextual embodiment—within the increasingly
complex and ever-changing regional and global socio-political landscape. Three key insights emerged from our findings.
First, memories of loss, suffering, and longing for home intertwine in Rohingya transnational digital connectivity. In this
remembrance process, Arakan (Rakhine) remains the place of reference and the center of gravity in their multi-layered
identity formation and political mobilization. Second, as a gateway to seek global attention and articulate their political
grievances, Rohingyas compose a coherent, unified, and human rights-based discourse on Facebook. Through such framing,
they create an oppositional consciousness, drawing positive attention to their plight and the injustice they have endured for
decades. Third, Islam, Muslim solidarity, and the narrative of Muslim victimhood emerge as indisputable markers in their
identity (re)construction and manifesting political resistance. Anchoring on Islam, they build bridges between the scattered
diaspora members and transcend their local struggle to the global audience, cementing the nexus between their Muslim
identity and discrimination by the Buddhist-majority Myanmar government.

Keywords
Rohingya refugees, social media, Facebook, digital diaspora, Myanmar, political mobilization, oppositional consciousness,
digital trace data

Introduction internet facilitates homeland imagination for displaced com-

Social media has become the new-age memento for people in
exile, uprooted from home and living an in-between life.
Digital proximity bridges physical distances by compressing
time and space and has also changed the contours in which
displacement, nostalgia, memories of loss, and distance have
long been imagined and experienced.
In the current migration paradigm, the “interlocked
phenomena of human mobility and digital mediation” in the
everyday lives of migrants have been drawing an interdisci-
plinary interest from scholars (Leurs & Smets, 2018, p. 2). By
allowing expressions and performances from a distance, digi-
tal platforms and their versatility became a “quintessential
outreach platform for a variety of non-state actors involved in
diaspora politics” (Kumar, 2018, p. 1). Offering a “complex
symbolic environment” (Bucy & Gregson, 2001, p. 369), the
munities and instigates a significant shift in diaspora identity
formation. Digital platforms constitute an alternative space
to voice political dissent and perform small acts of every-
day resistance by voicing dissent to totalitarian authorities
(Clothey & Koku, 2017; NurMuhammad et al., 2016).
Besides, the “low barriers to entry and exit, and non-­
hierarchical and non-coercive” nature of the internet, offer a
complete package of “benefits” to diaspora communities
1
University of Bonn, Germany
2
University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Corresponding Author:
Anas Ansar, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University
of Bonn, Niebuhrstraße 5, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
Emails: anas.ansar@uni-bonn.de; anasbd1990@gmail.com

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(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
2 Social Media + Society
who wish to connect around a homogeneous socio-cultural
identity and associate under identical political objectives
(Brinkerhoff, 2009, pp. 47–48). However, amid such pro-
found political and cultural transformation in virtual space,
the gap remains as to what extent such digital togetherness,
identity building, and political resistance evolve, transform,
and sustain over the years. It is also pertinent to spotlight
how migrants and refugee communities within the global
South interact in this digital landscape—particularly in a
volatile political environment and under persistent resource
constraints. This study addresses this lacuna by examining
the nuances of the Rohingya diaspora’s interactions with
Facebook and its users over time.
Frequently characterized as “the world’s most persecuted
minority,” the life stories of the Rohingyas are one of per-
petual violations of human rights, ethnic cleansing, stateless-
ness, and dispossession (Ansar, 2020, p. 1). The government
of Myanmar, the country they call home, categorically denied
their fundamental rights available to Burmese citizens by
introducing punitive policies and practices of othering and
marginalization. These include citizenship rights, freedom of
movement, employment, health, education, marriage, and
family (Ansar & Khaled, 2021; Cheesman, 2017; Holliday,
2014). While their plight solicited global attention following
the mass exodus in 2017, the conflict has been brewing for
decades, with periodic Rohingya exodus from the Rakhine
state to neighboring Bangladesh (Khaled, 2021). In 1978, to
clear out what the then Burmese military government refer­
red to as illegal migrants, the Myanmar army commenced
Operation Nagamin (Dragon King) against the Rohingya
community in Rakhine province (Kyaw, 2017, p. 270). The
conflict escalated following the controversial citizenship
policy in 1982 under the concept of Taingyintha, or the
“national races” (Cheesman, 2017, p. 461). Amid violence
and periodic exodus, neighboring Bangladesh continues pro-
viding sanctuary to over a million displaced Rohingyas.
Following this recurring displacement and onward migration
from Bangladesh refugee camps, a sizable Rohingya diaspora
community formed across Asia and in pockets of Australia,
Europe, and North America.
In exile as well, Rohingyas’ everyday lives are character-
ized by (im)mobility regimes, dependencies, and lack of rep-
resentation, stemming from their statelessness, ambiguous
legal status, and inadequate protection policies in the host
countries; the vast majority of them are not the signatories to
the United Nations (UN) 1951 refugee convention (Ansar &
Khaled, 2023). The hegemonic governmentality by the host
countries and the inability to return to Myanmar put them in
a situation of spatial, economic, and social immobility. A
response to such offline constraints is the advent of digital
connectivity among the exiled Rohingya diaspora.
In recent years, a handful of studies have made signifi-
cant strides to map the growing digital footprint of the
Rohingya community. On the one hand, they reveal how
technological affordances have reinvigorated a collective
Rohingya identity, created a sense of virtual togetherness,
provided digitally mediated transnational care, and facili-
tated political mobilization to internationalize their plight
(Ansar & Khaled, 2023; Aziz, 2022a, 2022b). On the other,
they reveal the gendered dynamics of displacement (Ansar
& Khaled, 2022) and the practices of civic resistance mani-
festing self-identification and political consensus building
along ethnic and religious lines (Abraham & Jaehn, 2020).
Unpacking the evolving facets of the Rohingya exile lives,
shifting communication technologies, and their pursuit of
justice in transnational spaces, these studies make a notable
contribution. However, considering the limited resources
and declining global interest in the Rohingya crisis, it begs
the question of how such digital engagements are positioned
and sustained within the global social, cultural, and political
upheaval. Whether and how does their “social media activ-
ism at the margins” (McCosker, 2015, p. 1) continue to stay
relevant and visible?
In this study, we take on the challenges of addressing this
transformation phenomenon in Rohingyas’ digital everyday
lives. We pursue this endeavor as exploratory research to
produce a cartography of Rohingya diaspora engagement
on Facebook using an extensive social media data set, an
extended timeframe, and by reflecting on the online–offline
choreography.
The findings come up with the following observations.
First, there is a visible decline in the Rohingya diaspora’s
collective digital activism on Facebook pertaining to the
complex unfolding of global and regional challenges.
Second, memories of loss, suffering, and longing for home
are inextricably intertwined in the discussion on Facebook.
Third, through transnational digital connectivity, Rohingya
diaspora members primarily concentrated on manifesting
their ethnic identities and building bridges between the scat-
tered members here and there, thereby creating a sense of
virtual togetherness and nurturing a collective self. Finally,
by focusing on the creative constellation of political issues
and transnational exchanges in virtual space, they confront
the policy pretensions of Myanmar’s totalitarian military
government rather than involvement in conflict per se.
The arguments unfold as follows: Following the intro­
duction, the second section provides a literature review of
Facebook’s role in the Rohingya conflict in Myanmar and
the digital diaspora. The third section discusses the concep-
tual framework and the data collection methodology (includ-
ing its limitations). It elaborates on the core concepts of
identity building and oppositional consciousness used in this
study. It also details the research design, the methods used
for data collection, ethical challenges, and the exploratory
data analysis process. The fourth section presents the empiri-
cal findings, elucidating the intricate dynamics between
forced displacement, digitalization, and virtual community
formation. It provides a nuanced understanding of how
Facebook facilitates identity re-construction and political
mobilization among displaced Rohingyas, as well as how
Ansar and Maitra
such engagements evolved and transformed over time.
Finally, the concluding section shows how the observations
made in the article transcend the current understanding of
everyday (digital) resistance and diasporic identity negotia-
tion through online media practices in forced migration and
conflict contexts.
Background and Literature Review
Rohingyas and Facebook: A Troubled Relation
During the brief quasi-democratic period between 2011 and
the military coup in February 2021, profound digital trans-
formation and connectivity with the rest of the world were
witnessed in Myanmar—a country that had been isolated for
decades. In 2011, with its aggressive campaign to capture
new markets, Facebook launched in Myanmar. By 2018,
internet access in Myanmar had increased to more than 30%
from what was less than 1% of the total population in 2001,
with Facebook becoming the prime source of news for
around 40% of internet users (Whitten-Woodring et al.,
2020, p. 1). Before 2011, Myanmar maintained firm control
over its already limited media outlets; public political expres-
sion was sporadic and censored (Farrelly & Win, 2016; Lee,
2019). With the exponential increase in mobile phone pene-
tration that proliferated to more than 50% by 2015, Facebook
allowed “zero-rating” or “free basics” programs to chase the
new market in Myanmar until 2017 (Whitten-Woodring
et al., 2020, p. 4). This triggered a situation where “many
Internet users in Myanmar do not see the Internet as existing
beyond tools like Facebook” (Lee, 2019, p. 3209).
Despite the Myanmar army’s outsized influence, the
semi-democratic government formed in 2011 brought in
several policy changes that resulted in greater economic,
political, and media freedoms for citizens (Lee, 2016,
p. 2). The government expanded the scope of foreign direct
investment, which was until then synonymous with Chinese
investment. Several banned democratic parties, including
the National League for Democracy headed by the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung Sun Suu Kyi, were allowed
to re-register and contest in the local elections. Regarding
media freedom, in 2012, the government ceased the draco-
nian practice of pre-publication censorship introduced by
the military dictatorship in the late 1960s (Whitten-
Woodring et al., 2020, p. 3). Nevertheless, the indirect
government control of domestic media remains. Such
ambivalence around media freedom created a space for
social media to expand and express political and social
opinions that were otherwise censored in mainstream news
platforms. This newly formed, liberal landscape provided
new opportunities for several extremist religious and politi-
cal groups to “enflame religious and ethnic tensions and
promote discriminatory policies, often to the detriment of
Myanmar’s Muslim population” (Lee, 2016, pp. 1–2). In
this period of “transition to democracy and the resulting
3
reshuffling of political and social power,” Facebook enjoyed
uninterrupted popularity as “conditions in Myanmar were
ripe for extreme online speech to occur and for disinfor­
mation to remain unchallenged” (Whitten-Woodring et al.,
2020, pp. 4–6). Different nationalist Buddhist groups,
including the anti-Muslim 969 Movement and the Association
for the Protection of Race and Religion, known as the Ma
Ba Tha, embarked on a hateful anti-ethnic minority and
anti-Muslim political agenda that led to policy changes,
clearly targeting the Muslim minorities (Van Klinken &
Aung, 2017).
Described in a 2013 Time Magazine cover story as the
“Face of Buddhist Terror,” the monk and prominent Ma Ba
Tha leader Wirathu had gathered over half a million follow-
ers until Facebook permanently suspended his account
(Beech, 2013, p. 14). He regularly posted inflammatory mes-
sages and videos to his followers, claiming Myanmar
Buddhism was facing an existential threat from Islam that
ought to be resisted (Ansar, 2020; Beech, 2013). Thus, vio-
lence against the Rohingyas was initially shaped and justi-
fied by religious groups, political actors, and armed forces
inside Myanmar, with the proliferation of extreme speech
and disinformation against the community on Facebook.
This unprecedented display of hate speech on the virtual
platforms is what Lee (2016, p. 4) described as “the dark side
of liberalization,” explaining how the increased access to the
internet and social media provided a “long-denied platform
to incendiary political opinions that can inflame ethnic and
religious tensions.”
Moreover, in a special report titled Hatebook: Inside
Facebook’s Myanmar operation, Reuters unveiled more than
1,000 samples, including posts, comments, and images that
incited racial hatred and state-sponsored violence in 2017
(Aziz, 2022b, p. 3). Similarly, in an investigative report on
the nexus between Facebook and the persecution of the
Rohingyas, Amnesty International (2022, p. 5) exposed how
actors linked to the Myanmar military and radical Buddhist
nationalist groups systematically flooded the Facebook platform
with incitement targeting the Rohingya, sowing disinformation
regarding an impending Muslim takeover of the country and
seeking to portray the Rohingya as sub-human invaders.
A UN investigation on the 2017 violence revealed how
Facebook accounts belonging to the military, extremist reli-
gious leaders, government offices, political cartoonists, and
social influencers routinely spread hateful messages against
the Rohingyas and justified violence against them, framing
them as outsiders and dangers to the Burmese nation (United
Nations, 2018).
Notably, Facebook’s negligence to control hate speech
against the Rohingya was also highlighted by the former
employee turned whistle-blower Frances Haugen. Her revela-
tions accused the company of putting “astronomical profits
before people,” a trade-off with the lives of Rohingyas for
4 Social Media + Society
better market penetration (Milmo, 2021b, para. 3). The wide-
spread use of hate speech on Facebook played an instrumen-
tal role in mainstreaming anti-Rohingya narratives, inciting
violence and their subsequent forced exodus from Myanmar.
Consequently, as of 2023, Meta—Facebook’s parent com-
pany—faces at least three legal cases in the United States and
the United Kingdom seeking remediation for the Rohingya
(Milmo, 2021a).
Identity Construction and Political Mobilization in
Digital Platforms
Migration, displacement, and refugeehood are inherently
entangled with “spatial and temporal repertoires of emotions
and affects” (Griffiths, 2020; in Aziz, 2022a, p. 4073). Digital
platforms transformed the idea of social space, allowing
migrants to become crucial protagonists by disrupting the
conventional order of connectivity and community (Candan
& Hunger, 2008; Marino, 2015). The emerging digital tech-
nologies and their access to information and communication
routinely transgress traditional boundaries and dislocate the
everyday understandings of space, borders, and belongings
(Latonero & Kift, 2018; Mainsah, 2014). Through multi-
layered exchanges across a broader spectrum, digital space
redefines the contours of cultural formations, interpersonal
relationships, and a sense of belonging (Ansar & Khaled,
2023; Clothey & Koku, 2017).
With the advent of information and communication tech-
nology, “conflict-generated” diasporas mobilized primarily
through constructing grievance narratives, influencing seces-
sionist attempts, and pursuing the right to self-determination
(Graziano, 2012; Kumar, 2018; Lindholm, 2021). Elias and
Lemish’s (2009) study of teenage immigrants from the for-
mer Soviet Union to Israel showed how virtual connectivity
shaped their evolving identity and helped them navigate
the difficulties stemming from their resettlement. Aouragh
(2011) showed how social media rekindled nostalgia and
memories of homeland among the members of the Palestinian
diaspora in exile. Similarly, discussing young Norwegian
women of African descent, Mainsah (2014) illustrated how
the intersection of online and offline spaces and local and
global contexts reinvigorates cultural identities and develops
a new geography of ways of belonging. Focusing on the
Tamil diaspora, Kumar (2012, 2018) analyzed how the quest
for a Tamil state in North-East Sri Lanka has relocated to
virtual platforms following the brutal defeat of Tamil guerril-
las in 2009 after 26 years of fighting against the Sri Lankan
government. Referring to “digital riots,” Graziano (2012)
discussed how the Tunisian diaspora in exile actively partici-
pated and built solidarity with fellow Tunisians back home
and across Europe in their legitimate claims for democracy
and human rights during the 2011 Arab Spring.
Focusing on Facebook, studies also brought attention to
specific ethnic and diasporic groups’ online identity forma-
tion and political engagement. For instance, NurMuhammad
et al. (2016) showed how Facebook provides the much-
needed space for the persecuted Uyghur community from
China to construct a transnational Uyghur identity through
everyday communication. Oiarzabal (2012) investigated how
Facebook influenced the Basque diaspora to reaffirm and
maintain their cultural identity and transmit their political
struggle for self-determination in Spain to the new generation
of Basques. Exploring the in-betweenness of the Palestinian
youth in Sweden, Lindholm (2021) discussed how transna-
tional activism and social mobilization on Facebook were
means of managing, meaning-making, and mediating a com-
plicated positioning between places and identities.
In contrast to such growing political and social pertinence,
an “interactional, positional, and affective polarization” also
takes precedence on social media (Yarchi et al., 2021, p. 98).
Governments instrumentalize these platforms to control and
counter immigration through targeted social media cam-
paigns and recruitment of paid agents to monitor migrants’
virtual activities (Andreassen, 2021; Brekke & Thorbjørnsrud,
2020). The direction of the relationship between the users
and ideologies in these platforms is, therefore, complex, het-
erogeneous, and reciprocal (Nordbrandt, 2021). Agreeing
with the fact that “cartographic imaginations of migration
and displacement” have been highly Eurocentric, this article
responds to the call for “de-centralize Europe in (Digital)
Migration Studies” by showcasing an understudied diaspora
from Asia (Leurs & Smets, 2018, pp. 11–12). With new
empirical insights, the findings reflect on the specific fea-
tures of the Rohingya diaspora as well as the parallels they
draw with other diaspora communities. Offering a nuanced
understanding of the cutting-edge developments from the
Asian context, we see this article as a contribution to the
emerging interdisciplinarity within the digital migration
studies with a global South and peripheral perspective.
Theoretical Underpinnings: Identity Building and
Oppositional Consciousness
For operational and interpretative reasons, the theoretical
underpinnings of this study are centered on the concept of
identity building and oppositional consciousness. Pertaining
to its ability to pursue and perform an alternative socio-cul-
tural and political representation, the internet has emerged as
a crucial social realm for identity building in exile (Clothey
& Koku, 2017, p. 351). Shared experiences and memories of
violence, escape, loss, and suffering are imperative to con-
struct such a collective identity, manifested in the bonding
and togetherness among the community members.
In a discussion on diaspora identity politics, Story and
Walker (2016, p. 138) suggested that identity may appear in
two ways: either emphasizing the homogeneity or unique-
ness of the group or referring to specific sets of characteris-
tics. Through such expressions, they stress on their unique
identity with features distinguishing themselves from oth-
ers. Contesting the conventional notion of diaspora identity,
Ansar and Maitra
Brubaker (2005, p. 12) advised against observing diaspora
as a bounded identity, instead “as an idiom, a stance, a
claim.” Interpreting diasporas as a result of particular pro-
cesses and performances of identity building, Sökefeld
(2006, p. 267) argued that “sentiments of belonging, attach-
ment to a home and ideas of a place of origin [i.e., the key
diaspora features] do not constitute the ‘substance’ from
which diasporas—like other identity groups—are made.”
Such understanding of diaspora identity necessitates rethink-
ing diaspora as a fluid process that continuously revolves
around time, space, resources, and political atmospheres
under which it mobilizes.
Online identity building gradually translates into identity
politics in this “strange new world of the postmodern
quotidian” (Poster, 1998, p. 197). This process underlines the
intrinsic urge of the isolated and marginalized community to
resist social, cultural, and political erasure and desire “to
exist in public space” (Diamandaki, 2003, p. 1). Mansbridge
and Morris (2001) coined the term oppositional conscious-
ness as “an empowering mental state that prepares members
of an oppressed group to undermine, reform, or overthrow a
dominant system” (p. 1). Oppositional consciousness is a
process of self-realization in which vulnerable and discrimi-
nated people identify the injustice they endured and, in
response, construct a positive self-image to ensure collective
justice (Clothey & Koku, 2017, p. 355). It conveys hope and
strengthens a marginalized community’s social and cultural
empowerment, leading to a call for change and justice
(Mansbridge, 2001, p. 5). Oppositional consciousness
expands the notion of a culture of resistance by designating
“a coherent set of values, beliefs, and practices which miti-
gates the effects of oppression and reaffirms that which is
distinct from the majority culture” (Mitchell & Feagin, 1995,
p. 68). It emerges at particular historical junctures when
“certain political opportunities, certain mobilizing institu-
tions and certain repertoires of action and self-understanding
become available” (Mansbridge, 2001, p. 5). While opposi-
tional culture “provides a foundation by offering ideas,
rituals and long-standing patterns of interaction among
members of a group,” oppositional consciousness, on the
other hand, “explicitly recognize[s] injustice, transforms and
builds on facts and ideas to create hope” (Clothey & Koku,
2017, p. 355).
Building upon these concepts, we explore how the
Rohingya diaspora engages on Facebook, constructs their
identity as a marginalized community, and facilitates the
creation of oppositional consciousness.
Methodological Approach and
Research Design
This study’s empirical approach can be characterized as a
mixed-methods research design with an exploratory empha-
sis. On the one hand, it conducts a quantitative data analysis
of publication and user engagement patterns of FB pages
5
operated by members of the Rohingya diaspora. With FB
pages as the unit of analysis, the study seeks to understand
the “big picture” structure and development of the Rohingya
digital diaspora on Facebook. On the other hand, the study
seeks to make sense of the content published via the posts of
these Rohingya diaspora FB pages qualitatively. It applies a
qualitative, interpretive analysis of the meaning of selected
FB posts. Accordingly, the qualitative part of the methodol-
ogy uses FB posts as units of analysis. This mixed-methods
research design, combining quantitative Facebook data
analysis with qualitative, hermeneutic-oriented interpretive
analysis of FB posts, allows us to gain deeper insights into
the complexities of the Rohingya digital diaspora.
Data Collection and Sampling
The study quantitatively explores and maps Rohingya FB
pages’ posting activities and the user interactions they
receive—including likes, shares, and comments. These
activities, which result from the deliberate choices of FB
page administrators and users, respectively, create digital
trace data. Freelon (2014) defined these as “evidence of
human and human-like activity that is logged and stored
digitally” (p. 59; see also: Howison et al., 2011). The study
seeks to valorize digital trace data to understand the
Rohingya diaspora FB pages’ key characteristics, content
publishing behavior, and user engagement patterns across
the 6-year analysis period (2017–2022).
The analyzed digital trace dataset was obtained through
CrowdTangle, an analytics tool owned and operated by Meta,
Facebook’s parent company (CrowdTangle team, 2023).
CrowdTangle tracks data from public FB pages and their
posts, including metrics such as the number of likes, shares,
and comments—it can, therefore, be used to study what
content is the most popular—in the sense of engaging
users—on Facebook. Meta offers CrowdTangle data, which
are secondary data, not collected directly by researchers.
This is a limitation. However, these data are distinctive due
to their extensive temporal and spatial coverage compared to
alternative collection methods like interviews, data dona-
tions, or screen scraping. CrowdTangle data have been
widely utilized in various studies, such as Angus et al. (2023),
Ghasiya and Sasahara (2022), and Larsson (2020).
To create a sample of Rohingya diaspora FB pages, we
used CrowdTangle’s web interface and Facebook’s internal
search in February 2023. We searched both interfaces with
carefully selected keywords in English (i.e., Rohingya
refugees, Rohingya genocide, Rohingya women, Rohingya
community, Rohingya youth, and Arakan Rohingya). The
Rohingya language is a spoken dialect with no universally
agreed written script. The military governments restricted
Rohingyas from exercising their cultural and linguistic rights
as part of their systematic exclusion from the idea and the
Union of Myanmar. Therefore, English, notwithstanding the
interesting cleavage, is prima facie the lingua franca in
6 Social Media + Society
Table 1. Overview of Sample Metrics in the Analysis Period (January 01, 2017–December 31, 2022).
Facebook pages of Rohingya diaspora Total posts Total interactions
47 34,905 7,969,794
Rohingya diaspora Facebook communications. It is partly
due to the purpose of political activism ingrained in the use
and interactions on Facebook. Nonetheless, concentrating on
only one language constitutes a potential study limitation.
To explore and place digital evidence within a larger con-
text, we gathered a list of FB pages related to Rohingya
from January 01, 2017 to December 31, 2022 (the mass exo-
dus happened in August 2017). Analyzing a dataset that cov-
ers a considerable period helped us to explore the “historical
digital traces collected over years of social media use”
(Møller & Robards, 2019, p. 106). We filtered the initial list
of more than 70 FB pages gathered through the keyword
search to identify FB pages operated by members of the
Rohingya diaspora community. We excluded FB pages
operated by non-Rohingya diaspora actors, such as non-
governmental oraganizations, news outlets, UN bodies, and
humanitarian organizations. We also excluded inactive FB
pages that did not publish any posts in our analysis period.
Our final sample comprises 47 active FB pages operated by
members of the Rohingya diaspora. We subsequently down-
loaded an extensive dataset of 34,905 FB posts that the sam-
pled FB pages had published during the 6-year analysis
period (see Table 1).
For each FB post, we obtained data such as publication
date, media type (e.g., link post, video post, photo post), and
the number of likes, comments, and shares, among other
metrics. We also obtained the Uniform Resource Locators to
the actual FB posts that enabled us to view them as they
appeared on Facebook.
We used the open-source software R to conduct the data
analysis (version 4.3.0.; R Core Team, 2022), notably the
tidyverse R packages dplyr (data wrangling) and ggplot2
(graphics) (Wickham, 2016).
Variable Construction
The exploratory data analysis focuses on the interrelation
between the publishing behavior of Rohingya diaspora FB
pages and the FB users who interact with those pages and,
notably, the posts they publish. We are interested in the fre-
quency and type of those interactions across time. Accordingly,
the following metrics are of interest:
•• Total posts: The total number of FB posts published
by the FB pages in the analysis period. Total posts are
a measure of the FB pages’ publication frequency.
•• Total interactions: The total number of FB users’ inter-
actions with FB pages and the FB posts these pages
published in the analysis period. Total interactions are
Shares Likes Comments
2,025,027 5,365,813 229,715
calculated as the sum of shares, comments, and reac-
tions (including likes and the newer “emotional” reac-
tions: sad, love, haha, angry, wow, and care). Total
interactions are a measure of user engagement.
In addition to the scope of user engagement and its devel-
opment across the analysis period, we are also interested in
its sentimental valence. In other words, we are interested in
whether positive or negative FB reactions guide user engage-
ment with Rohingya FB pages and the FB posts they publish.
Therefore, we also use the following metrics:
•• Positive reactions: These are the sum of love, haha,
wow, and care reactions. Positive reactions are a subset
of the user engagement metric of total interactions.
•• Negative reactions: These are the sum of sad and
angry reactions. Negative reactions are also a subset
of total interactions.
In addition to absolute figures, we also considered mean
values per FB post for the analyzed metrics of total interac-
tions, positive reactions, and negative reactions.
Categorization of Rohingya FB Pages
To complement our mapping of the Rohingya digital dias-
pora on Facebook using digital trace data, we manually cat-
egorized the Rohingya diaspora FB pages into page types.
We consulted each FB page’s About section and pre-ana-
lyzed each page’s most engaging FB posts. Based on this
qualitative critical pre-screening, we identified six emergent
and recurring themes of diasporic activities and interests
to categorize the 47 FB pages. Table 2 reports the different
categories.
Interpretive Analysis of Selected Rohingya
FB Posts
To complement the quantitative part of the analysis that
focused on FB pages, we also conducted an interpretive anal-
ysis of selected FB posts from these pages. Inspired by the
anthropological approach of context-dependent, interpretive
thick description (Geertz, 2008), the qualitative interpretive
analysis aims to add a contextual layer specific to the unique
case of the Rohingya digital diaspora. Thompson (2001)
characterized thick description as “a means to discover and
reveal the depth of meaning that human actors inscribe in
their language and actions” and viewed it as “particularly
applicable to communications studies” (p. 66). Clark and
Ansar and Maitra 7

Table 2. Overview of the Categorization of Rohingya Diaspora FB Pages.

Theme FB pages Description

Art and culture 5 FB pages representing and disseminating content related to Rohingya culture, folklore, music, art,
and so on
Diaspora community 9 Rohingya diaspora community FB pages operating from different countries with sizable Rohingya
populations
Education 5 FB pages providing online education support and relevant information on distance learning,
scholarship information, and teaching of the Rohingya language
Human rights 13 FB pages documenting the Myanmar army’s human rights violations, collecting and disseminating
genocidal evidence in the Rakhine state
News media 10 FB pages that regularly post news information about the Rohingyas’ everyday lives in exile, problems
and challenges they face in the host countries, and political and policy changes inside Myanmar and
at the global level that have a clear manifestation in their life
Youth development 5 FB pages fostering Rohingya youth development and providing targeted information and
opportunities for Rohingya youths in exile

Note. FB = Facebook

Chevrette (2017) noted that thick description enabled
researchers to “move between cultural context [and] the
social actions and behaviors that constitute it” (p. 1).
The interpretive analysis was applied to 67 FB posts that
were selected in two steps. First, 264 FB posts with a mini-
mum of 1,000 user interactions were identified. Second,
from these 1,000 FB posts, the posts that received at least
100 comments were selected, resulting in 67 FB posts
(approximately 0.2% of the sample of 34,905 FB posts). We
chose user comments as a selection criterion because com-
menting represents the most interactive type of user interac-
tion on Facebook (Kim & Yang, 2017). The threshold of 100
comments ensured the selection of a manageable subsample
of FB posts that each stirred significant levels of discussion
among the FB users who engaged with the Rohingya dias-
pora FB pages.
Finally, individual comments and images shared in this
article were blurred to uphold ethical standards and maintain
confidentiality. With a protected security code, all collected
data, including screenshots, were stored in online data storage.
Information that discloses personal identity has been carefully
revisited and avoided when referring to empirical evidence.
Results: Mapping the Rohingya
Diaspora on Facebook
The following results report the findings from the explor-
atory data analysis of Rohingya diaspora FB pages, followed
by the qualitative interpretive analysis of selected FB posts.
Exploratory Time Series Analysis
A first set of exploratory results emerges from the time series
of key page and user engagement metrics. Figure 1 displays
the development of the average monthly number of total
interactions, likes, comments, and shares across the 6-year
analysis period.
The blue lines in Figure 1 indicate linear trends for each
metric (the gray areas around the trend lines indicate error
margins at a 95% confidence interval). Slight negative
trends appear for the curves of total interactions and shares,
whereas likes and comments exhibit slight positive trends.
Overall, there is a diminishing trend of total interactions,
including declining shares. While likes and comments
follow a positive trend, it also emerges that these two met-
rics—with their “mountainous” shape—also exhibit higher
overall volatilities. It is also noteworthy to mention the
extremely high values at the beginning of the total interac-
tions and shares curves, which both originate from a single
FB post (!). This post1 depicts graphic human rights abuses
in videos and photographs and went viral with exceptional
levels of sharing on Facebook in February 2017.
A further time series result concerns the sentiment of user
engagement across the analysis period. Figure 2 shows that
positive reactions follow an upward trend, indicating an
increase in the average level of positive sentiment toward
Rohingya diaspora FB pages and posts. Conversely, negative
reactions follow a downward trend after a peak of negativity
around August 2017, when the Rohingya mass exodus
occurred.
As we observe, the ascending diaspora engagement on
Facebook in 2017, late 2019, and early 2020 stands out in
posting and overall interactions. These online activities are
inextricably intertwined with offline circumstances. For
instance, 2017 was marked by the mass exodus of nearly a
million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar into neighboring
Bangladesh. Similarly, on November 11, 2019, Gambia
applied to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on behalf
of the Rohingya community against Myanmar, accusing the
country responsible for violating the genocide convention.
Two days later, on November 13, a case was filed by a
Rohingya diaspora organization in an Argentine domestic
court based on what is termed “universal jurisdiction” against
members of the Myanmar government, including the then de
8 Social Media + Society
Figure 1. Time series of total interactions, likes, comments, and shares of Rohingya diaspora Facebook pages.
facto leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi. On November 14, the pre-
trial chamber of the International Criminal Court issued a
decision suggesting the prosecutor commence with a formal
investigation on the Myanmar government for alleged geno-
cide in the Rakhine state. These successive events were
momentous for the community in their quest for justice and
global recognition of their plight.2
Following this tenacious global spotlight on the Rohingya
issue for months, the pandemic engulfed the world, and in
Myanmar, on February 01, 2021, the military took over
power. Overnight, the international community’s focus on
the plight of the Rohingyas was replaced by discussions on
violent nationwide protests and civil resistance against the
military coup. Subsequently, the Ukraine war started a year
later, on February 24, 2022, changing the very contour of
international politics and security dynamics and the global
media focus.
Thus, the findings reiterate how offline momentum gives
the impetus for online activism and the embeddedness of the
digital realm in offline actions. It underscores the cyclical
nature of Rohingya Facebook engagement within a complex
interplay of international political order and collective com-
munity pursuit of their long struggle for justice. The inability
of online engagement to generate tangible social and politi-
cal changes means if it is “all click, no action” (Wilkins et al.,
2019, p. 97), it would gradually fade away—ostensible in the
case of progressively declining Rohingya diaspora’s collec-
tive action on Facebook.
Differences Across FB Page Categories
A second set of exploratory results materializes when com-
paring user engagement across the different types of
Rohingya diaspora FB pages. Figure 3 shows how total
posts, total interactions, and mean total interactions per post
are distributed among the different FB page categories.
In absolute numbers, news media-oriented FB pages
exhibited the highest post publishing frequency (total posts).
They received the highest user engagement levels (total
interactions) of all page categories. However, in relative
numbers—when considering the mean total interactions
per post—FB pages dedicated to fostering the Rohingya
community and promoting education occupy the first two
spots, followed by news media pages. It is also noteworthy to
consider the figures for human rights-oriented FB pages.
Although they publish posts relatively frequently, they
receive relatively fewer interactions. This applies particu-
larly to mean total interactions per post, where human rights-
oriented Rohingya diaspora FB pages receive the least
engagement compared to the other page categories.
Figure 4 illustrates further differences in user engage-
ment patterns across the different types of Rohingya
Ansar and Maitra
Figure 2. Time series of positive and negative reactions to Rohingya diaspora FB pages.
Source. Based on CrowdTangle analytics platform.
Note. FB = Facebook.
diaspora FB pages. When differentiating the user interaction
types such as likes, shares, and comments, it is worthwhile
to distinguish between absolute and relative per post values.
While news media FB pages again dominate the rankings
when considering the (absolute) sums of likes, shares, and
comments, differences appear in the extent of that domi-
nance across these different metrics. News media pages are
particularly dominant in the number of likes and shares.
However, the lead over the second-placed diaspora commu-
nity FB pages is smaller regarding the sum of comments.
The differences across FB page categories are even smaller
at the relative (per post) level of user engagement.
This means, for example, that although education-
oriented Rohingya diaspora FB pages posted the fewest total
number of posts in our sample (see Figure 3), these posts
fared relatively well in relative terms. They ranked second in
the average number of likes, shares, and comments per post.
Similarly, posts from art and culture-oriented FB pages per-
formed better than all other categories in the mean number of
Comments per post.
9
These figures convey crucial insights into how different
types of Rohingya FB pages also exhibit different user
engagement patterns. Some FB page types, such as those
related to education and art and culture, only publish a
relatively small fraction of Rohingya diaspora FB posts.
Nevertheless, their FB posts trigger relatively high user
engagement, notably commenting.
On the other hand, overall user engagement, in absolute
terms, is still dominated mainly by news media FB pages and
content. Posts published by news media FB pages are par-
ticularly attuned to being liked and shared by users.
Making Sense of Rohingya Diaspora FB Content
Qualitatively: Identity Construction and Political
Mobilization
As a “digital diaspora in the making” (Ansar & Khaled,
2023, p. 3), the interactions of the Rohingya community
on Facebook bring myriad features—a testament to the
growing nexus between social media and forced migration.
10 Social Media + Society

Figure 3. Total posts, total interactions, and total interactions per post across different types of Rohingya diaspora Facebook pages.

Figure 4. Absolute and relative (per post) user engagement across different Rohingya Facebook page categories.
Ansar and Maitra
Screenshot of a Rohingya poem
Figure 5. Rohingya poetry of resistance on Facebook.
The interpretive analysis of the selected FB posts and inter-
actions suggests that topics discussed on Facebook predomi-
nantly feature content related to Rohingya identity and
their political mobilization. It provides an identity canvas
accommodating a range of issues, including the assertion of
unique Rohingya ethnicity and their presence in pre-modern
Myanmar, memories of Arakan, display of Rohingya cultural
and folklore heritage, and amateur music videos with
Arakanese songs (Arakan Desor Jeerani) urging Rohingya
youth (Arakanese Nowjoan) to step up and reclaim their past
in Myanmar.
Images and videos of loss and suffering, shared grievance
for the homeland, nostalgia, and quest for a return to the
Rakhine state persistently shape the narrative and influence
the construction of Rohingya identity. Ethnic identity for­
mation is, therefore, articulated in terms of identity loss
(NurMuhammad et al., 2016, p. 491). Another important
marker of such identity tracing is referring to the Rakhine
state as Arakan and Myanmar as Borma (Burma). To main-
tain a coherent Rohingya identity, to preserve and transmit it
to the new generation, mainly those who were born and
raised outside Myanmar, videos with visual and graphical
representations of Rohingya history are regularly posted on
Facebook, which contributes to facilitating a coherent iden-
tity narrative and connectedness (Aziz, 2022b; Bernal, 2010).
A conspicuous development in Rohingya Facebook activ-
ities is the prominence of Islam, refugeehood, and everyday
lives in exile, also partly produced by the conflict. The
emphasis on their Muslim belief as part of Rohingya identity
and a reason to be discriminated against and differential
treatment by the international community are overwhelm-
ingly represented in their Facebook interactions. Referring
to the situation in the Rakhine state as Aiyame Jaheliat
(Quranic Age of Darkness), portraying the Rakhine state as
the new open Muslim concentration camp, questioning the
reluctance of the so-called “Muslim World” in declaring
Jihad (resistance) against “Buddhist Evils,” the resurrection
of Hashor Kiyamot (Quranic day of judgment) and seeking
11
Author’s translation
Happiness in Arakan is in abundance
Where else but in Arakan, I search that
Leaving golden Arakan, nowhere I find peace
Remember folks, the day shall come, when that
Sweetness (of Arakan) will disappear
Arakan is in our heart
Make sacrifice to liberate it
Boys-Girls, together
Folks, you won’t taste Sweetness of Arakan,
Until you resist the enemy
To survive, to protect the honor and dignity of our
mothers and sisters.
justice from Allah, are narratives that frequently appeared in
the contents—both as key posts and reaction to it.
Such narratives of loss, nostalgia, Muslim suffering,
displacement, and fear of erasure from history kindle gen-
erational togetherness and foster Rohingya identity and
belonging in exile. A form of “communal digital grief” is
perceptible in such virtual togetherness (Babis, 2021,
p. 397). In this process, social media creates the opportu-
nity to “mend ruptures in the social body” and to bridge the
gap with their physical homeland (Bernal, 2010, p. 124).
For a diaspora with “a cause to advocate” (Mavroudi,
2008, p. 60), digital engagement inevitably revolves
around political mobilization, and the same goes with the
Rohingya diaspora, where online users reinforce their
Burmese origin and distinctiveness of their ethnic identity
in the forefront of political positioning.
Similarly, Rohingya political mobilization on Facebook
is crafted and disseminated in various ways, with contents
dominated mainly by their shared struggle for citizenship,
human rights violation, statelessness, Rohingya genocide
recognition, and transnational solidarity. For the stateless
Rohingyas, who are entangled in such asymmetrical global
power structure and offline constraints, the digital platform
provides an alternative mechanism to outreach. It offers
alternatives to tap resources, build capacities, create links,
and enhance connectivity among the scattered community
members in an “unevenly interconnected world” (Ponzanesi,
2020, p. 978). Facebook posts contain information on online
fundraising, mobilizing international solidarity and support,
and reaching out to global political stakeholders, including
the UN, European Council, and Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC). This coordinated web activism offers
them a “connective opportunity structure” in agenda-framing
and in pursuing a concerted effort to underpin their aims,
concerns, and expectations to the global stakeholders
(Kumar, 2018, pp. 11–12).
The “mediated visibility” in digital space also compen-
sates for the long absence of offline resistance, where
12
Figure 6. Political memes have a strong presence on Rohingya
Facebook activism.
diaspora members regularly live-stream their protests and
political processions on Facebook (Aziz, 2022b, p. 20). A
political manifestation of Rohingya identity and cultural
representation is also palpable in this virtual space. This is
profoundly exhibited in content that posts Rohingya folk-
lore, poems, and music, leading to a poetic expression of
resistance, as illustrated in Figure 5.
In compensation, the frequent use of hashtags such as
#Rohingya, #RohingyaGenocide, #SolidaritywithRohingyas,
#BurmeseRohingya, and #WhatshappeninginMyanamar;
political memes; and caricatures (e.g., see Figure 6) take
precedence in their political expression. Such symbolic man-
ifestation of solidarity ignites political opinions through
vibrant and provocative political participation. This process
strongly influences collective identity formation and politi-
cal consensus building among the young generation of the
Rohingya diaspora (Gerbaudo & Treré, 2015). They leverage
humor as a civic resistance and a gateway that persuades
powerful emotion and ignites hope and optimism.
Contesting Burmese narratives and pernicious reports in
international media, Rohingya users frequently present self-
reflection and perspective on the political events and give a
“voice to the voiceless” (Aziz, 2022b, p. 14). For example,
declaring Rohingya persecution as genocide, organizing
a digital campaign during the Gambia v. Myanmar case
at the ICJ, the embeddedness of Rohingya history in the
kingdom of Arakan—a territory forcibly merged within
the Union of Myanmar—are issues that firmly dominate the
Facebook forum, in an attempt to form “a common history
and identity” (Candan & Hunger, 2008, p. 134). With this
persistent political positioning, they cultivate a common
political (and digital) historiography of the Rohingya com-
munity in Myanmar.
Similar to identity re-construction, Rohingya political
mobilization is also shaped by their sense of Muslimhood
(e.g., see Figure 7). As a recurring phenomenon, Islam acts
Social Media + Society
Figure 7. Rohingya suffering as Muslims is widespread in their
Facebook representation.
as the connecting dot in Rohingya political engagement in
virtual space. They call for a political agency through various
discursive means. For example, narratives of how Rohingya
people are being ignored by the powerful Western countries
due to their faith, selective compassion by the UN and inter-
national community, failure of the OIC to rally global sup-
port, and the absence of a Muslim Country Representation at
the UN Permanent Security Council are frequently surfaced
in the discussion on Facebook.
Another notable feature of the Rohingya diaspora’s
Facebook engagement is the configuration of their participa-
tion. Only 10% of users actively engage (assertive users) by
further commenting in detail and adding new information or
dimension to the original posts. The rest are sort of timid
users whose involvements are limited to making comments
such as “Thank You,” “Sad,” “True,” “OK,” “God help us,”
“Great,” and so on. While assertive users take their cause
further, it is the timid users who help sustain such a collective
journey. It is, therefore, imperative to apprehend the role of
participation—a key driver “to the formation of a sense of
transnational identity” (Marino, 2015, p. 3).
Discussion: Dwelling Between Fatigue
and Responsibility
In this changing milieu of digital engagement and transfor-
mation over the years, the Rohingya diaspora appears to be
caught “between fatigue and responsibility” (Lindholm,
2021). While the descending trends of their collective action
on Facebook constitute fatigue and hopelessness, their per-
sistent prioritization of identity building and political posi-
tioning through the human rights framework reaffirm their
unwavering resilience. In this period of transformative
changes in Myanmar and the international socio-political
order, Facebook constituted a key terrain for “both the con-
struction and the contestation” of Rohingya identity and col-
lective resistance (Gerbaudo & Treré, 2015, p. 869). In this
ambivalent process of homogeneous positioning on digital
Ansar and Maitra
platforms, we identified three pertinent issues that influence
and shape this dispersed community’s connectivity and
togetherness.
First, Arakan (Rakhine state) remains the place of refer-
ence and the center of gravity in the Rohingya diaspora’s
multi-layered identity formation and political activism.
Arakan is what “connects generations in dispersal and a way
to remember a common past” (Lindholm, 2021, p. 302).
Arakan is their non-negotiable homeland and a resolute
marker for positioning their social, cultural, and political
journey. With this emotional commitment circling a particu-
lar geographic location, the Rohingya community members
not only seize the narrative-making apparatus but also mani-
fest “their collective sense of self, who they are and what
they stand for” (Gerbaudo & Treré, 2015, p. 865). Notably,
their resistance through persistent references to Arakanese
folklore in the forms of poetry, music, metaphors, and imag-
eries also unveils how the folklores and indigenous rural cul-
ture from Arakan shape their cultural identity, a phenomenon
famously termed as Folklorismus by German sociologist
Hans Moser (1962, p. 177).
Second, Rohingyas employ a cohesive, coherent, human
rights-based discourse on Facebook to articulate their politi-
cal grievances and proclaim their shared objectives. As a
gateway into global attention, human rights-based narra-
tives of suffering and loss help transcend their grievance
narratives beyond diaspora members (Kumar, 2012). Acting
as a “community-forming device,” Facebook also facilitates
the culture of resistance and reaffirms Rohingya ethnic
identity through a direct, relatively less hierarchical, and
fluid channel of communication (Oiarzabal, 2012, p. 1469).
Cultivating this concerted oppositional consciousness
strengthens their sense of rights, justice, and belonging. It
helps advance the discussion on their plight and draws
global attention to the injustice they have endured for
decades. They also engage through humor and caricature to
convey political messages; nevertheless, the profundity of
such practices to build collective consciousness is contested
due to the aesthetic interpretation of humor (Korkut et al.,
2022). The context specificity of humor is another important
aspect that limits the scope of transcending the messages
beyond the familiar circle.
Third, Islam, Muslim solidarity, and Muslim victimhood
appear to be the indisputable markers in their identity
(re)construction and expansion of political resistance. In
an everyday setting, their sufferings as Muslims cannot be
trivialized. However, to address the injustice, looking at it
through the lens of Muslim victimhood has the risk of being
deflected from the wider practice of marginalization and per-
secution, which Myanmar has long instrumentalized against
ethnic minorities as a continuation of colonial divide and rule
policy. Connecting deeply with Islam facilitates a sense of
solidarity by positioning within global Muslim identity and
struggle. Nevertheless, such manifestation may “engender a
13
cathexis between a community of believers and a people
joined by suffering” (Abraham & Jaehn, 2020, p. 1058).
Such crisis framing through a religious lens may obscure the
slender yet significant boundaries between religion and eth-
nicity in cementing the Rohingya identity and future ethnic
and political reconciliation (Ansar & Khaled, 2023, p. 7).
Notwithstanding, amid such evolving interactions and
issue-framing dynamics, a gender perspective on identity
formation and political bargaining is muted in the Rohingya
diaspora engagement on Facebook, leaving this as a topic in
the periphery. Neither in the form of the content nor in the
users’ discussion, women and gender issues received notable
attention. Based on the above findings and positioning itself
as an interdisciplinary endeavor combining disciplines of
communications, forced migration, international politics,
and digital media studies, the article contributes to the exist-
ing scholarship in five ways:
First, to our knowledge, it is the first comprehensive study
on Rohingya Diaspora engagement on Facebook and their
transformation over the years with a large-scale dataset.
Second, putting the spotlight on the Rohingya community,
a peripheral diaspora within the global diaspora discourse,
the article offers a nuanced understanding of the “capacities
for building and maintaining more peripheral dissident pub-
lics over longer time frames” (McCosker, 2015, p. 1). Third,
it unpacks how offline socio-political dynamics influenced
the scale and characteristics of their digital activism, thereby
reiterating the “non-digital-media-centric-ness” of social
media engagement and reciprocity between online and
offline activism (Smets, 2018). Fourth, it illustrates how
diaspora activism on Facebook effectively moves through
and beyond “selective exposure” and has sustained, man-
aged, and evolved over the years (Aruguete & Calvo, 2018).
Finally, it argues that although online engagement inevitably
helps amplify the offline circumstances, it is the offline
momentum that helps consolidate the virtual resistance.
Conclusion
Despite its dubious role in making the Rohingya crisis and
their forced exodus from Myanmar, Facebook continues to
act “as nodes of socialization and interaction” for the exiled
Rohingya diaspora in a non-linear way (Marino, 2015, p. 7).
An emotional outpouring of identity construction and politi-
cal resistance is conspicuous on this platform. It reveals
their persistent engagement around ethnic identity preserva-
tion, cultural reproduction, and political resistance despite
prolonged displacement and palpable material and social
disadvantage. Expanding the emerging scholarship on dis-
placement and digitalization, the article presents how dis-
persed Rohingya communities on Facebook reinforce
diasporic ties, consolidate their ethnic identity, and advance
their political objectives through oppositional conscious-
ness building. Such engagement in digital space is reshaping
14
the contour of interpersonal relationships, cultural represen-
tation, community formation, political narrative making,
and building community cohesion. It promotes an identity
that revolves around Arakan, their imagined homeland. It is
shaped by the memories of loss, suffering, and responsibil-
ity to carry forward their pursuit of Myanmar citizenship
and recognition of the Rohingya genocide. In parallel, they
persistently transcend territorial boundaries by strategically
situating their plight as a similar struggle of Muslims else-
where. Crafting grievance narratives and using human
rights-based language, Rohingya diaspora members connect
with the global audience and convey their messages. By
embracing this dual approach, they “invite comparatively
expressive forms of political engagement” that are deeply
local in their cause and digitally global in their arguments
(Kumar, 2018, pp. 15–16). In this virtual domain, they
embark on an ambivalent journey where the challenge
remains to stay relevant and focused amid the ever-changing
global social, cultural, and political order.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.
ORCID iD
Anas Ansar https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5537-2202
Julian Maitra https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3989-5158
Notes
1. This viral Facebook post, which depicts videos of violence
against the Rohingya, can be found here (viewer discretion
advised): https://www.facebook.com/710852579072442/
posts/714703172020716 (last accessed June 5, 2023)
2. To learn more about the developments on legal investigations
against Myanmar government, please visit https://www.hrw.
org/news/2022/02/14/developments-gambias-case-against-
myanmar-international-court-justice (last accessed May 03,
2023).
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Author Biographies
Anas Ansar is a Doctoral Researcher at the Bonn Center for
Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), University of Bonn,
Germany. His current research focuses on digital transformations
in forced migration contexts, transnational digital practices, and
diaspora identity formation in digital space.
Julian Maitra (Ph.D. University of St. Gallen) is a Postdoctoral
Researcher of Communication and Media at the University of
Fribourg in Switzerland. His research interests include social
media, journalism, and computational methods.