Meta overlooks suggestion of its own Oversigh Board to block Cambodian leader’s Facebook account

Facebook parent company Meta is overlooking a recommendation made by its own Oversight Board to suspend the account of Cambodian leader Hun Sen on its platform for inciting violence.

The Oversight Board, created by Meta to adjudicate difficult content decisions, asked the company in June to suspend the account of then-Prime Minister Hun Sen. The decision by the board came after the leader posted a video wherein he had threatened to “send gangsters” to his opponents home, “beat” them up, and “arrest traitor with sufficient evidence at midnight.”

The news of board’s recommendation marked it the first time to ban an account of a head of the government. This prompted Hun Sen to publicly quit the platform and threaten to impose a countrywide ban on the social media giant.

In a decision by Meta, posted on Monday, the tech giant stated that it “would not be consistent with out policies, including our protocol on restricting accounts of public figures during civil unrest.” The platform removed the video which was labelled as violent and further revoked Sen’s access to the platform.