Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 52 (2020) Crime as Cognitive Constraint conglomerates, 98 government officials exploit the populist appeal of the platform to its advantage, humanizing authority figures to the level of the ordinary citizen and average Facebook user. This gives the illusion of equality between state officials and ordinary citizens, reinforcing the narrative of democracy. For Jack Balkin, “digital technologies highlight the culture and participatory features of freedom of expression.” 99 In Myanmar, platforms appear not only to “highlight” these features insomuch as help bring about a participatory culture in a country in the midst of democratic transition. This conforms to Facebook’s expressed commitment to promote “voice,” 100 where both state and citizen are Facebook users equally subject to the platform’s rules. This would have an important implication later on, when Facebook banned Myanmar’s commander-in-chief from the platform. 101 Kate Klonick described platforms as the “new governors,” 102 where private rules regulate individual expression alongside speech laws. This reinforces Duncan Kennedy’s position of the collapse of the publicprivate distinction, where binaries merely feed into each other in a referential “loop.” 103 Kennedy argues that, “[a]lthough these [public and private] distinctions are not synonymous, they are all in a sense ‘the (describing the importance of platforms in Kenya to coordinate public action). 98. Oliver Spencer & Yin Yadanar Thein, Has Facebook Censored Myanmar’s Commander-in-chief?, FRONTIER MYANMAR (Aug. 29, 2018), https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/has-facebook-censored-myanmarscommander-in-chief (arguing that the Myanmar military’s highest ranked officer cannot be censored as the military “owns several television stations and newspapers,” and therefore still has the opportunity for expression). 99. Jack M. Balkin, Digital Speech and Democratic Culture: A Theory of Freedom of Expression for the Information Society, 79 N.Y.U. L. REV. 1, 3 (2004). 100. Monica Bickert, Updating the Values that Inform Our Community (Sept. 12, 2019), Standards, FACEBOOK https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/09/updating-the-values-thatinform-our-community-standards/; Facebook also describes its mission as giving people “the power to build community and bring the world closer together… to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.” Our Mission, Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ, https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ (last visited March 25, 2020) 101. Antoni Slodkowski, Facebook Bans Myanmar Army Chief, Others in (Aug. 27, 2018), Unprecedented Move, REUTERS https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-facebook/facebook-bansmyanmar-army-chief-others-in-unprecedented-move-idUSKCN1LC0R7. 102. Kate Klonick, The New Governors: The People, Rules, and Processes Governing Online Speech, 131 HARV. L. REV. 1598, 1603 (2018). 103. Duncan Kennedy, The Stages of the Decline of the Public/Private Distinction, 130 U. PA. L. REV. 1349, 1354 (1982). 160