Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 52 (2020) Crime as Cognitive Constraint At an international symposium held in 2019 on the subject of Law and Atrocity Prevention, I was asked to speak on a panel about “regulating social media that fosters atrocity crimes.” 5 The word choice for the panel discussion – “fosters” — was very telling. It reveals the uncertain legal character of social media companies’ involvement in instances of incitement to violence posted on the platform, including the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide under the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute (alternatively, “incitement to genocide”). 6 Such ambivalence was similarly apparent in the FFM report. The FFM found that ultranationalist monks, military leaders, and government officials were responsible for posts that constituted incitement to violence and persecution against the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar’s Rakhine State. 7 Discriminatory rhetoric and calls for violence created a social environment which facilitated the armed confrontations between Myanmar’s military – the Tatmadaw – and the non-state armed group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. This, in turn, resulted in the present Rohingya refugee crisis. 8 In contrast, the FFM’s description of Facebook’s involvement was less straightforward: The Mission has no doubt that the prevalence of hate speech in Myanmar significantly contributed to increased tension and a climate in which individuals and groups may become more receptive to incitement and calls for violence. This also applies to hate speech on Facebook. The extent to which the spread of messages and rumours on Facebook has increased discrimination and violence in Myanmar must be independently and thoroughly researched, so that appropriate lessons can be drawn and similar scenarios prevented. Similarly, the impact of the recent measures 5. Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Atrocity Prevention: The Role of International Law and Justice - Part 3, YOUTUBE (Oct. 7, 2019), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT_wdRS2pGA. 6. Long, supra note 4; Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, art. 25(3)(e), Jul. 17, 1998, 2187 U.N.T.S. 3 [hereinafter Rome Statute]; Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, art. III(c), Dec. 9, 1948, 78 U.N.T.S. 277 [hereinafter Genocide Convention]. 7. See U.N. Human Rights Council, Rep. of the Detailed Findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, ¶ 1319, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/39/CRP.2 (Sept. 17, 2018) [hereinafter Detailed Findings of the FFM]. 8. See id.; Rohingya Refugee Crisis, https://news.un.org/en/focus/rohingya-refugee-crisis [https://perma.cc/2W6H-FBG5]. 145 U.N. NEWS,