Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on Friday that he could block access to Facebook in his country after the platform declared its intention to remove one of his videos in which he threatened to hit opponents.
Cambodian voters will go to polls on July 23 in a general election widely dubbed a sham after authorities refused To the Candle Party, Hun Sen’s main opposition party.
On Thursday, the board of directors of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, recommended suspending Hun Sen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for six months over a video shot in January.
In that video, he told his opponents that if they accused his party of cheating in July’s elections, they would face legal action or a beating.
Hours later, Meta said he would honor the decision to remove the video.
“We will consider all of the board’s recommendations in addition to its decision and will respond to the board’s recommendation to suspend Prime Minister Hun Sen’s accounts once we conduct that analysis,” the statement said. Meta in a press release.
Hun Sen, a longtime and prolific Facebook user, announced late Thursday that he no longer uses the platform and appears to have deleted his account.
Speaking to workers in the western province of Pouthisat on Friday, Hun Sen threatened to block Facebook in Cambodia “for a short time or forever” to prevent opposition figures from communicating with the country’s citizens in exile.
“Don’t be arrogant, you’re staying abroad, you’re using Facebook to communicate, we could block Facebook,” he said, seemingly addressing opponents in exile.
He then asked Cambodians to download other social networks such as Telegram, TikTok, Line, Viber and WhatsApp, which also belong to Meta but whose content is harder to control.
Hun Sen also accused Facebook of turning a blind eye to “insulting” comments from rivals about his wife and eldest son Hun Manet, who is widely seen as a admirer of his estate.