"Well-known Burmese blogger and activist Nay Phone Latt launched the Panzagar (flower speech) campaign last week, which aims to oppose hate speech, a practice of attacking a person or group on the basis of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Inter-communal violence has rocked Burma since 2012, giving rise to virulently anti-Muslim rhetoric among some Facebook users. Hate speech has been used online to increase pressure on international humanitarian groups, such as Médicine Sans Frontièrs, that provide aid to the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority. The nationalist 969 movement of Buddhist monk U Wirathu has been accused of spreading hate speech against Muslims. Nay Phone Latt became a well-known free speech advocate in Burma after he was arrested for online activism in 2007 and sentenced to 20 years under the Electronic Transactions Law. He was released as part of a mass amnesty in January 2012. He is the current executive director of Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO) which provides local ICT training in rural areas. This week, he spoke to The Irrawaddy about his new campaign."