Greg's Corner

Facebook is helping crush dissent in yet another country

In yet another story that’s becoming all too common, Facebook has once again been accused of being used by an oppressive government to silence the opposition. Previously, we’ve discussed how Facebook was used in Myanmar to help persecute the Rohingya minority in that country, and how the Philippine government was using Facebook to try to silence an opposition news outlet. Now, Buzzfeed News has an extensive article about how the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, is using Facebook to jail any opposition and dissenters.

In a nutshell, a pro-government media outlet in Cambodia has used a disinformation campaign on Facebook to not only try to discredit the opposition leader, Kem Sokha, but it also led to Kem being arrested for treason and the opposition party being dissolved. The Cambodian government hasn’t been exactly shy about how they use Facebook either. An aide to Hun Sen is even quoted in the Buzzfeed article stating they have a good relationship with Facebook and how helpful they’ve been with closing accounts that criticize the government.

Not surprisingly, this comes at a time when Facebook has admitted that it can’t guarantee it’s good for democracy. How much more will it take before Facebook realizes it’s created a monster of power that is out of its own control and who could possibly stop it at this point?