Hun Sen, the Prime Minister of Cambodia, has threatened to block Facebook in his country.
This comes after a Facebook oversight board proposed banning Hun Sen from the social media site for six months after he had advocated committing violence against his political opponents in a video shared on the platform.
In a statement, the Facebook advisory board said: ‘Given the severity of the violation, 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 calls on Meta to immediately suspend Hun Sen’s Facebook page and Instagram account for six months.’
Hun Sen has 14 million followers on Facebook, and the video calling for violence was viewed 600 000 times. He has been Prime Minister since the 1980s.
He has now left the site before it could bar him from using it. He also called on Cambodians to leave Facebook and use other platforms such as Telegram and TikTok.
Elections are due to be held later this month, but Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party are likely to face only token opposition. The main opposition party, the Candlelight Party, was banned from competing in the elections because of an alleged administrative error. There is increasing repression of people opposed to Hun Sen’s regime.