PM’s alleged phony ‘likes’ put pressure on Facebook
PHNOM PENH Cambodia is sliding into dictatorship, and it’s playing out on Facebook.
The country’s government, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, has purchased millions of fake ‘‘likes’’ on the social media platform, and has used it to silence critics and spread propaganda, opponents say.
Former opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s lawyers yesterday filed a petition in a northern California court that could shed light on this behaviour, raising questions about the social media giant’s possible role in bolstering an authoritarian government.
‘‘Human rights are being ignored and our electoral system is in shambles,’’ said Sam, who lives in exile in France. ‘‘ By exposing facts now in the possession of Facebook, we will be able to place real evidence before courts in Cambodia and possibly elsewhere. When facing irrefutable evidence, even a dictator will have to backtrack.’’
The Cambodian government has charged Sam in several politically tinged cases, at least four of which concern content he has posted to Facebook.
Sam’s petition ‘‘seeks information in Facebook’s possession regarding Hun Sen’s misuse of social media to deceive Cambodia’s electorate and to commit human rights abuses’’, according to a statement by San Francisco-based law firm BraunHagey and Borden, which is representing him.
Facebook did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Since Hun Sen ascended to the Cambodian government’s highest levels in the late 1970s, he has established a reputation as a tough leader with a low tolerance for dissent. With a national election scheduled for July, his government has in recent months shut down Western non-profit agencies operating in Cambodia, prosecuted scores of activists, and hobbled the country’s independent press.
In November, Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the country’s only opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which Sam had led until last year.
Sam’s successor, Kem Sokha, was arrested in September for alleged treason. Several other party leaders have fled abroad or gone into hiding.
Cambodians once regarded Facebook as an injection of transparency in the long-authoritarian state. The CNRP used the platform to communicate directly with voters in a 2013 national election, sparking protests and win- ning the party a significant number of seats in parliament.
Yet as Facebook grows more influential in Cambodia, the authorities have increasingly coopted it to spread propaganda and silence critics.
According to a 2017 report, 4.5 million people in the country are connected to Facebook, and more than half use it every day. Many use it as their sole source of news.
Since 2014, 15 people have been arrested over Facebook posts, according to a recent investigation by BuzzFeed News.
‘‘Where Cambodians have lost here is in restrictions in online speech,’’ said Sebastian Strangio, the author of Hun Sen’s AP Cambodia. ‘‘[Hun Sen’s party] has been extending all the informal and formal media controls that it’s had offline – in newspapers, radio – and extending them to the online sphere. It can’t go after Facebook, so it’s going after the users.’’
Hun Sen has 9.4 million likes on his Facebook page, which mainly depicts him snapping selfies with supporters and spending time with his family. By one measure, he’s the third-most popular world leader on the platform after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Donald Trump.
In 2016, Sam accused Hun Sen of purchasing fake likes from ‘‘click farms’’ in the Philippines and India, a practice that Facebook has said it does not condone. Hun Sen denied the allegation and sued Sam for defamation.
The court petition also alleges that Hun Sen published a death threat against Sam on the platform, violating its user guidelines.
Although Hun Sen’s government has shuttered independent media, it has allowed far-right, government-aligned news outlets to thrive. The website Fresh News, often equated to America’s Breitbart News, often vilifies opposition figures and dissidents while touting the party line. It has 2.4 million likes.
‘‘Facebook has demonstrated its potential to help improve information-sharing and transparency in countries like Cambodia. The issues raised in the petition ask fundamental questions about Facebook’s role in the democratic process, including how it will react when being misused by repressive regimes,’’ Sam’s attorney, J Noah Hagey, said.
Sam faces several lawsuits in his home country. In January, he was charged with inciting and demoralising Cambodia’s military after he suggested – in a video posted to Facebook – that Cambodian soldiers would not obey orders to shoot civilians. Hun Sen called the comment a ‘‘declaration of war’’.
In 2016, Sam protested the killing of Kem Ley, a prominent political analyst who was gunned down at a petrol station that July. Although the killer is in jail, many Cambodians suspect that the killing was a political assassination and that its architects have not been brought to justice. A Cambodian court found Sam guilty of defamation and incitement for calling the killing ‘‘an act of state-sponsored terrorism’’. LA Times