Vloggers and democracy: Dissidents say Cambodian Facebook experiment may allow autocracy to thrive

Catherine Harry's case has raised important questions
Catherine Harry's case has raised important questions Credit: A Dose of Cath

A Facebook experiment in Cambodia could boost the authoritarian regime’s crackdown on human rights and democracy ahead of a 2018 general election, opposition activists have warned.

The Southeast Asian nation is one of six small countries chosen for an experiment to tweak the Facebook News Feed function so that users only see posts from their friends and sponsored content.

The change means that to view Facebook posts from news outlets, NGOs or political parties, users must go to a new section called “Explore”. Those who want their material seen in the place that most users browse must now pay for the privilege.

But the move coincides with the worst attack on human rights in two decades, after the regime jailed Kem Sokha, the leader of the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), and forced the closure of independent media outlets.

The Facebook experiment was ill-timed, said Sam Rainsy, the exiled former leader of the CNRP, which was dissolved by the Supreme Court on Thursday after being accused of trying to overthrow the government.

Cambodia was at a “turning point,” he said from his Paris office. “Facebook is all the more important for the opposition since it has no access whatsoever to the broadcast media.”

A loss of advertisers threatens Ms Harry's livelihood
A loss of advertisers threatens Ms Harry's livelihood Credit: A Dose of Cath

As Prime Minister Hun Sen’s regime has sought to silence opponents, Facebook has evolved into the most influential source of news for most Cambodians.

The social media site also helped to power the CNRP’s recent rising popularity. But since the launch of the test on October 19, Mr Rainsy said he had noticed a 20 per cent decrease in traffic on his own Facebook page.

Unlike the current regime, the opposition could not finance a return to the regular news feed, giving Hun Sen the chance to get ahead of his rivals by paying for more coverage, he argued.

“Facebook’s latest initiative would possibly give an even stronger competitive edge to authoritarian and corrupt leaders with massive financial means thanks to systemic corruption,” he claimed. 

Outspoken Cambodian video blogger, Catherine Harry, warned of potentially serious political consequences.

“It impacts a lot of people, especially with the election coming next year. We need a good source of independent and unbiased information…they [Facebook] are cutting out that source of information for us,” she said.

Until recently, Ms Harry was a rising social media star, regularly clocking up to 200,000 hits on her Facebook posts about taboo subjects like virginity, feminism and sexual health.  

Recently she has also seen her numbers slashed and fears for not only for her freedom of speech, but also her livelihood. 

Ms Harry told the Telegraph she risked losing her advertisers. Her first video posted under the new format saw views drop from the normal 12,000 in the first hour, to just 5,000 in five hours.

A Facebook spokesperson denied that the experiment was an “advertiser test”, adding that its goal was to understand if people prefer to have separate places for personal and public content.

While declining to comment on specific concerns about Cambodia, she said the test was expected to last a few months.

In an earlier statement, head of News Feed, Adam Mosseri, clarified that there were “currently” no plans to extend the experiment or “charge pages on Facebook to pay for all their distribution in News Feed or Explore.”

But in the meantime, Cambodian charities are also worried about the impact on their fund-raising capabilities, said Jaime Gill, a British communications expert based in the capital, Pnomh Penh.

Smaller local charities, with no marketing budget, had become less visible after a “sharp, noticeable, instantaneous drop” in traffic, he said.

“Facebook has been by far our most effective [communications] tool,” he said. “It’s not fair that a small NGO in Cambodia doesn’t have the chance to be heard.”

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