Meta oversight board wants Cambodian leader’s account suspended

Meta’s oversight board has recommended the social media giant suspend the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen after he posted a speech that called for violence against political opponents.

The board’s report, released Thursday, advises Meta to take down a January speech when the authoritarian leader said those who do not support his party would be “beat up” and that he would “send gangsters” to their homes.

“There are only two options. One is to use legal means and the other is to use a bat,” Hun Sen said.

The video was reported to Facebook moderators at the time, but the platform decided to keep it up saying that it was too newsworthy to remove. The oversight board disagreed, saying the violent rhetoric outweighed any newsworthiness.

The next Cambodian general election is in late July, and Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party cleared the way for victory, barring the main opposition from competing.

The oversight board’s report also notes that Hun Sen has artificially increased the newsworthiness of his own statements by limiting press freedoms in Cambodia. He has also been accusing of using bot farms to boost his popularity.

A former Khmer Rouge military officer who fled to Vietnam, which then installed him in power, Hun Sen has led Cambodia since 1985 through halting its transition to a democracy.

The board recommended that his Facebook and Instagram accounts be suspended for six months, a nonbinding recommendation that Meta has two months to consider. 

His Facebook page was not accessible Thursday, though it wasn’t clear why. A Meta representative told The Hill the company did not remove his page.

The Hill has reached out to Meta to clarify if it had made a final decision on the account.

The board cited “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 longtime leader has been accused of killing political opponents, torturing prisoners and government dissenters, and silencing an independent media that thrived throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

An avid Facebook user, Hun Sen has leveraged the platform to connect with a new generation of voters in one of the youngest countries in Asia. Social media sites including Facebook are closely monitored by government censors in Cambodia, and legal cases often frequently follow posts critical of the prime minister and his government.

This week, Hun Sen preemptively announced that he would stop using his Facebook page and instead begin posting exclusively to Telegram. 

Updated: 2:19 p.m.