The usually very active Facebook account of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared to have been deleted on Friday, a day after the supervisory board of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, recommended that he be suspended from the platform for threatening to violence against political opponents.
The showdown pits the social media giant against one of Asia’s oldest autocrats.
Mr Hun Sen, 70, has ruled Cambodia since 1985 and has maintained power in part by silencing his critics. It is a staunch ally of China, a country whose support comes free of American-style admonitions about the value of human rights and democratic institutions.
A note on Friday to the account of Mr. Hun Sen, who had about 14 million followers, said his content “not available right now.” It was not immediately clear whether Meta had suspended the account or whether Mr. Hun Sen had preemptively deleted it, as he had promised to do in a post Thursday afternoon on Telegram, a social media platform where he has a number much less followers.
“For him to stop using Facebook is his private right,” Phay Siphan, a spokesman for the Cambodian government, told The New York Times on Friday. “Other Cambodians are using it, and that’s their right.”
The supervisory board appointed by the company for Meta had Thursday recommended a minimum suspension of six months from the accounts of Mr. Hun Sen on Facebook and Instagram, who also owns Meta. The board also said that one of Mr. Hun Sen had violated Meta’s rules on “violence and incitement” and should step down.
In the video, Mr Hun Sen gave a speech in which he responded to allegations of vote-rigging by calling on his political opponents to choose between the legal system and “a bat”.
“If you say this is freedom of speech, I will also express my freedom by sending people to your place and home,” said Mr. Hun Sen in the speech, according to Meta.
Meta had previously decided to keep the video online under a policy that allows the platform to allow content that violates Facebook’s community standards because it is newsworthy and in the public interest. But the oversight board said Thursday it was overturning the decision, calling it “wrong.”
The board added that its recommendation to suspend the accounts of Mr. Hun Sen for at least six months was justified given the severity of the violation and his “record of committing human rights violations and intimidating political opponents, and his strategic use of social media to amplify them.” threats”.
Meta later said in a statement that it would remove the offending video to comply with the board’s decision. The company also said it would respond to the suspension recommendation after analyzing it.
Critics of Facebook have long said the platform can undermine democracy, promote violence and help politicians unfairly target their critics, especially in countries with weak institutions.
Mr. Hun Sen has spent years cracking down on the media and political opposition in an effort to consolidate his grip on power. In February, he ordered the closure of one of the country’s last independent media outlets, saying he did not like the coverage of his son and presumptive successor, Lt. Gen. Hun Manet.
Under Mr. Hun Sen’s government has also pushed for more government surveillance of the Internet, a move rights groups say makes it even easier for authorities to monitor and punish online content.
The many Facebook followers of Mr. Hun Sen may exaggerate his real support. In 2018, one of his most prominent political opponents, Sam Rainsy, argued in a California court that the prime minister used so-called click farms to amass millions of fake followers.
Mr. Sam Rainsy, who lives in exile, also argued that Mr. Hun Sen had used Facebook to spread fake news and death threats aimed at political opponents. The court later denied his request that Facebook be forced to release records of Mr. Hun Sen and his allies.
In 2017, an opposition political party led by Mr. Sam Rainsy, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, was dissolved by the country’s highest court. More recently, Cambodian authorities have disqualified other opposition parties from running in next month’s general election.
At a public event in Cambodia on Friday, Mr. Hun Sen said his political opponents outside the country were probably happy with his decision to quit Facebook.
“You have to be aware that if I order the shutdown of Facebook in Cambodia, it will affect you a lot,” he added, speaking at an event for garment workers ahead of the general election. “But this is not the path I choose.”
