Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 52 (2020) Crime as Cognitive Constraint still heavily prosecuted under draconian defamation laws. 90 This creates a chilling effect on public participation and free press coverage of sensitive political events. 91 Further, state-owned media remain unmatched in terms of resources and reach, 92 enabling the state to manage public discourse effectively. Ironically, democracy gave more impetus for state ownership of media channels as a way to “amplify the government’s messaging.” 93 Against this background, Facebook carved out a space where the “tea shop and the 8 o’clock news meet.” 94 In the Myanmar context, the 8 o’clock news represented the sanitized news that was typically aired during pre-2011 Myanmar, while the tea shop provided a “quintessential…place to learn…what the 8 o’clock news was not [then] discussing.” 95 Combining these two metaphors, Facebook served as the place where both “military leaders and activists share the same virtual space, and where there is no direct way for state authorities to control or censor dissenting voices.” 96 Myanmar’s socio-political context thus magnifies the importance of platforms, similar to other Global South contexts such as Kenya. 97 Despite military ownership of media https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-censorshipidUSBRE87J06N20120820. 90. See Christopher Zara, Jailed For A Facebook Poem: The Fight Against Myanmar’s Draconian Defamation Laws, FASTCOMPANY (July 13, 2017), https://www.fastcompany.com/40438242/jailed-for-a-facebook-poemthe-fight-against-myanmars-draconian-defamation-laws. 91. Defamation is currently penalized under six different laws, some of which allow criminal complaints to be filed by persons other than the person allegedly defamed. For an overview, see Gayathry Venkiteswaran, Yin Yadanar Thein & Myint Kyaw, Legal Changes for Media and Expression: New Reforms, Old Controls, in MYANMAR MEDIA IN TRANSITION: LEGACIES, CHALLENGES AND CHANGE 59 (Lisa Brooten, Jane Madlyn McElhone & Gayathry Venkiteswaran eds., 2019). 92. See Myanmar Profile - Media, BBC NEWS (May https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-12991727. 93. Michelle J. Foster, The Business Environment for News Media in (2018), Myanmar: 2018, INTERNEWS https://internews.org/resource/business-environment-news-mediamyanmar-2018. 94. Yan Naung Oak and Lisa Brooten, The Tea Shop Meets the 8 O’clock News: Facebook, Coveregence and Online Public Spaces, MYANMAR MEDIA IN TRANSITION: LEGACIES, CHALLENGES AND CHANGE 325, 329 (Lisa Brooten, Jane Madlyn McElhone, Gayathry Venkiteswaran, eds., 2019). 95. Id. at 328. 96. Id. at 329. 97. NANJALA NYABOLA, DIGITAL DEMOCRACY, ANALOGUE POLITICS: HOW THE INTERNET IS TRANSFORMING THE POLITICS IN KENYA 204-205 (2018) 159 2, 2017),