Oversight Board Asks Meta to Suspend Cambodia PM’s Accounts Over Post Inciting Violence

This photo illustration shows a post on Facebook by Cambodian government official Duong Dara, which includes an image of the official Facebook page of Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen before he deleted his account, in Phnom Penh on June 30, 2023. Prime Minister Hun Sen said on June 30 he could block access to Facebook in Cambodia, after the company said it would remove a video in which he threatened to beat up political opponents. (Photo by TANG CHHIN Sothy / AFP) Photo by TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP via Getty Images

Meta’s oversight board has recommended a six-month suspension of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts after he threatened to use violence against his opponents in a video.

The oversight board, a quasi-independent body in charge of reviewing content moderation decisions, overturned Meta’s ruling on June 30 to leave up Hun Sen’s video on Facebook posted on Jan. 9.

Meta is the parent company of the social media site.

In the one-hour, 41-minute live broadcast on Facebook, Hun Sen refuted allegations that his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) stole votes during last year’s local elections and asked his political opponents to choose between the “legal system” and “a bat.”

Hun Sen warned that he would “gather CPP people to protest and beat you up” or even send thugs to the accusers’ residences. The live broadcast was kept as a video and viewed around 600,000 times, according to Meta.

Meta reviewed his speech after receiving user complaints that it violated the site’s violence and incitement community standard. However, the post remained on Facebook despite Meta concluding that the speech violated its policies, citing its newsworthiness.

The case was brought to the board after a user appealed Meta’s decision. In its referral, Meta said the case had created a “challenging balance between its values of safety and voice” in determining whether to allow the political leader’s content on Facebook.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen (C) takes selfies with a supporter during the inauguration ceremony of the Bakheng-1 water treatment plant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on June 19, 2023. Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images

‘Severity of the Violation’

The board ordered the removal of the post from Facebook, citing the “severity of the violation, Hun Sen’s history of committing human rights violations and intimidating political opponents, as well as his strategic use of social media to amplify such threats.”

The board ruled that Meta’s decision to leave the post up based on newsworthiness was wrong because the harm caused by allowing the speech on Facebook outweighed its public interest value.

“Given Hun Sen’s reach on social media, allowing this kind of expression on Facebook enables his threats to spread more broadly. It also results in Meta’s platforms contributing to these harms by amplifying the threats and resulting intimidation,” the board said.

The board also recommended the immediate suspension of Hun Sen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for six months under Meta’s policy on restricting accounts of public figures during civil unrest.

Meta has agreed to remove the video from Facebook. However, the company said that it would need to review the board’s recommendation on suspending Hun Sen’s accounts before responding.

Hun Sen Switching to Telegram, TikTok

Meanwhile, Hun Sen has deleted his Facebook page and switched to the Telegram messaging app, which he said will enable him to communicate with people and does not have the problem of “fake accounts.”

The Cambodian leader also created an account on the Chinese video platform TikTok on June 29 to engage with youth. Radio Free Asia reported that his TikTok channel has gained about 22,000 followers.

Cambodia's Prime Minister and President of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) Hun Sen and his wife Bun Rany leave after voting during a general election in Takhmao, Kandal province, Cambodia, on July 29, 2018. Darren Whiteside/Reuters

Commenting on this, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said that Hun Sen switched to Telegram because Facebook “dared to hold him accountable to their community standards.”

“PM Hun Sen is finally being called out for using social media to incite violence against his opponents, and he apparently doesn’t like it one bit. That’s the real story about why he’s running away from Facebook,” Robertson stated on Twitter.

Telegram was founded by Pavel Durov, a Russian-born French citizen who also created the Russian social network Vkontakte. Robertson described Telegram as a “favored social media messaging system of despots ranging from Russia to Myanmar.”

Some activists and diplomats have warned against what they call long-serving Hun Sen’s actions to suppress opponents, fearing they could undermine the democratic process in the Southeast Asian country.

Sam Rainsy, an exiled former Cambodian opposition leader who co-founded the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), has previously urged the international community to reject the results of Cambodia’s upcoming election, citing “systematic manipulation and falsification” by the Cambodian authorities.

“Unlike neighboring Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar, Cambodia has not had an independent electoral commission in the eyes of its democratic opposition since 1993,” Rainsy wrote in an article published in Nikkei Asia on May 9.

Last month, Cambodia’s election commission disqualified the sole opposition Candlelight Party—which is a reincarnation of the CNRP—from contesting elections in July over its failure to submit proper registration documents.

Scores of former CNRP members have been detained or convicted of crimes, many in absentia having fled into exile amid Hun Sen’s sweeping suppression of critics.

Reuters contributed to this report.