Cambodia: On Friday, Cambodian Prime Minister threatened to ban the Social-Media platform Facebook after company’s oversight board recommended that Sen’s Instagram and Facebook should be suspended for language that could incite political violence. Hun Sen is known for his tough stances and has been running the country for last 38 years. Hun Sen had a popular following of 14 million users on his Facebook before suspending his account. He also has strong presence on Telegram with 800,000 followers and has urged Cambodians to make switch to platforms like Telegram and Tik-tok.
Hun Sen’s content on Facebook
The Prime Minister of Cambodia had been an avid user of the Meta owned social media website. He regularly posted photos of family members, did livestreaming and issued video warnings to his adversaries. The quasi-independent review board on Thursday recommended that PM Hun Sen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts should be suspended for a period of 6 months for using language that could incite violence. The assessment was based on video of a January speech where he launched attacks on his political opponents.
The board justified their conclusion citing “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 produced a 26-page report and overturned decision to keep January speech video online.
‘Face off is a human rights issue‘
Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement regarding the events which said that “saga was a “face-off between Big Tech and a dictator over human rights issues” that was “long overdue”. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch stated “Cambodia 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.”
PM Sen announced via telegram that he will ban Facebook if it continued allowing content from his political opponents exiled in other countries. He has also alleged that Facebook had acted unfairly as they have never taken actions against his political rivals for using extreme language to target him.
Facebook has agreed to follow suit on recommendations made by the oversight board.
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