Prime Minister Hun Sen said he deleted his Facebook account on Thursday night, hours after Meta’s Oversight Board recommended the company suspend his accounts because he posted a video threatening to beat his political opponents. The Facebook account, which had over 14 million followers, is no longer accessible online.
“I asked my assistant to delete my Facebook account immediately and tell the Facebook company to remove my name from Facebook,” he said. “From now on, any Facebook with the name Hun Sen is fake.”
He claimed that the platform Telegram is more “effective” and does not have the same “hacking” issues as Facebook, where he said that there are up to 20 Facebook accounts with the same name as him. He did not mention the board’s decision in his post.
Meta’s Oversight Board, independent experts who can override company content decisions, announced in March it would consider appeals to remove a video posted on Hun Sen’s account.
A speech the prime minister gave in Kampong Cham on January 9 was live streamed on the platform, in which he threatened his opposition either with legal action or “a stick.”
“This means that I will gather all the CPP’s supporters to hold a demonstration and hit you,” he said.
Meta chose to leave the video up on account of its “newsworthiness,” despite determining that Hun Sen’s comments violated the company’s “violence and incitement community standard.”
The board’s ruling to overturn Facebook’s content decision concerning the video is binding, while its other recommendations, including suspending Hun Sen’s accounts, are not. Company guidelines stipulate that Meta “is committed” to responding to recommendations within 60 days.
Meta and the Oversight Board could not be reached for comment.
Hun Sen’s official Instagram page is still live as of Friday at 1 p.m.
He also began posting on a TikTik account this week. In a Thursday Telegram post he noted that there are already several other accounts on TikTok using his name that have hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of likes.
The prime minister posted often on his Facebook page and amassed a following of 14 million, in a country with a population of about 17 million, although experts have questioned the veracity of the large following.
The board’s ruling comes just two days before the campaign period starts for the July 23 national election, in which the ruling CPP party will have virtually no formidable competition.
“The opposition opponents overseas, they are happy. But you have to consider, if I order the shutdown of Facebook in Khmer, you will be in trouble,” the prime minister said at a meeting Friday morning with hundreds of government workers in Pursat province. “But I will not take this action.”
He urged Cambodian people to use other messaging and social media platforms such as Telegram, Whatsapp, Line, Viber and TikTok.
Hun Sen also asked the crowd during his speech if Facebook had considered the posts of former opposition figure Sam Rainsy, who he claimed had insulted his family on the platform.
“Facebook has its policy, I respect it. But Facebook has overlooked some matters where Facebook policy is violated,” he said. “Be careful: to squeeze Hun Sen’s tongue is the same as squeezing Meta itself.”
Sam Ramsey did not respond to CamboJA’s request for comment.
Minister of Post and Telecommunications Chea Vandeth could not be reached. Duong Dara, an assistant to Hun Sen who works on his social media, hung up the phone when reached for comment by CamboJA.
