Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 52 (2020)
Crime as Cognitive Constraint
Pre-2011, a mobile SIM card cost around US $1,500-2,000; by 2011, it
cost US $1.50. 46 Mobile phones became affordable and broadband
subscriptions increased. 47 Thus, the country woke up from five decades
of military rule greeted by smartphones; this was the populace’s “first
experience with any form of telephony.” 48
Social media platforms gained more users as access to the Internet
became easier. 49 Facebook currently enjoys an estimated 20 million
active users 50 of the country’s 54 million demographic. 51 Unsurprisingly,
hate speech flourished on the platform. 52 Facebook posts helped
46.
Jason Motlagh, When a SIM Card Goes From $2000 to $1.50: Myanmar
opens its wireless market, cuing a frenzy, BLOOMBERG (Sept. 29, 2014),
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-29/myanmar-opensits-mobile-phone-market-cuing-carrier-frenzy
[https://perma.cc/F6U7Y72U].
47.
Myanmar’s mobile revolution, BANGKOK POST (Jun. 20, 2016),
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1015225/myanmars-mobilerevolution [https://perma.cc/WUR6-4TY2]; Detailed Findings of the
FFM, supra note 7, ¶ 1342; Michelle J. Foster, The Business Environment
for
News
Media
in Myanmar:
2018, INTERNEWS (2018),
https://internews.org/resource/business-environment-news-mediamyanmar-2018 [https://perma.cc/V2BQ-59TU] (finding that mobile
phone penetration has exceeded 100% as of 2018).
48.
Lorian Leong, Mobile Myanmar: The Development of a Mobile App
Culture in Yangon, 5 MOBILE MEDIA & COMMUNICATION 139, 140 (2017)
(stating that Huawei and Android dominated the market as of 2014).
49.
Detailed Findings of the FFM, supra note 7, ¶ 1344, n.2975 (“It is
suggested that Facebook enjoys more than 90 per cent share among social
media platforms in Myanmar, and that this has been so since 2012.”). As
of August 2019, Facebook enjoys almost 95% market share in the country.
Social Media Stats in Myanmar - February 2020, STATCOUNTER
GLOBALSTATS,
http://gs.statcounter.com/social-mediastats/all/myanmar
[https://perma.cc/2BV2-37JM];
Catherine
Trautwein, Facebook Racks Up 10m Myanmar Users, MYANMAR TIMES
(June 13, 2016), https://www.mmtimes.com/business/technology/20816facebook-racks-up-10m-myanmar-users.html. For an anecdotal account,
see Craig Mod, The Facebook-Loving Farmers of Myanmar, THE
ATLANTIC
(Jan.
21,
2016),
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/the-facebookloving-farmers-of-myanmar/424812/. See also Leong, supra note 48, at
11-12 (discussing how mobile shop-keepers acted as “warm gatekeepers”
for mobile users who were not digitally literate, by installing apps in
mobile phones remarkably without receiving any financial incentive from
app companies)
50.
Detailed Findings of the FFM, supra note 9, ¶ 1344.
51.
POPULATION
REV.,
Myanmar
Population
2020,
WORLD
http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/myanmar-population/
[https://perma.cc/NN4P-TE6L].
52.
See Sticks and Stones: Hate Speech Narratives and Facilitators in
C4ADS
(2016),
Myanmar,
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/566ef8b4d8af107232d5358a/t/56b
153