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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen reactivated his Facebook account Thursday, three weeks after announcing he was forsaking the social media giant in favor of posting on Telegram, a popular messaging app that also serves as a blogging tool.

Hun Sen’s return to the Facebook fold came three days before a general election in which his ruling Cambodian People’s Party is virtually guaranteed a landslide victory.

Hun Sen said at the end of June that he would stop posting new material on his Facebook page but leave the account online. He said he was switching to Telegram because he believed the app provided a more effective way to communicate.

But when a Facebook watchdog criticized the language in one of his videos and recommended suspending the prime minister’s account for six months, Hun Sen took down the page.

Duong Dara, who manages the 70-year-old leader’s social media accounts, posted a message Thursday saying he had asked Hun Sen to reactivate his Facebook page in the national interest.

REVIEW BOARD RECOMMENDS SUSPENDING SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS FOR CAMBODIA’S PRIME MINISTER DUE TO VIOLENT LANGUAGE

“I created this page ‘Samdech Hun Sen, Cambodian Prime Minister,’ for him to use for communicating with the Cambodian people, both inside and outside the country, especially to get to hear directly from them about their situation via requests and comments on his page,” Duong Dara wrote. “Because I saw the importance of this social media network, I decided to create this page for him to use for the benefit of the country. I don’t want to lose the main page that we have been using for the last 13 years.”

Hun Sen, who has led Cambodia for 38 years, had used Facebook since 2015 to display family snapshots, issue dire warnings to his political enemies, and broadcast live his frequent and often lengthy speeches.

His page boasts 14 million followers, though critics have suggested a large number are “ghost” accounts purchased in bulk from so-called “click farms,” an assertion Hun Sen has repeatedly denied.

As of Thursday, Hun Sen’s Telegram account had almost 987,000 subscribers, up from the 855,000 he had when he announced his June breakup with Facebook.

Hun Sen announced his intention to cease posting on Facebook a day before a quasi-independent review board established by the platform’s parent company, Meta, recommended the 6-month suspension of both the prime minister’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.

The oversight board concluded he had used language that could incite violence in a video of a January speech in which he decried opposition politicians who accused his party of stealing votes.

2 ANTI-GOVERNMENT ACTIVISTS IN CAMBODIA CHARGED WITH INSULTING KING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The board said it reached its non-binding recommendation due in part to “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.”

Separately, it overturned a ruling by Facebook’s moderators to allow the video, originally broadcast live, to stay online. Within hours of the board making its report public, Hun Sen’s Facebook page was removed.

He said the next day that he had closed his account and was considering banning Facebook in Cambodia, largely because he was fed up with online abuse from political enemies abroad. However, he did not carry through on the threat.

He also ordered the members of the oversight board to be barred from entering Cambodia.

The Cambodian Ministry Of Post and Telecommunications said at that same time that it intended to have Facebook’s representatives expelled from the country. The ministry cited problems with Facebook, such as the creation of fake accounts, the collection of private data, a lack of accountability and transparency, and alleged interference into Cambodia’s political affairs.

Its action fell flat because Facebook apparently does not have a staff in Cambodia.

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Fact-checkers in Nigeria have long warned that disinformation could damage the nation’s democracy. Media organizations recently trained 32 Nigerian reporters in information verification and digital cybersecurity. 

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Fact-checkers in Nigeria have long warned that fake news could damage the nation’s democracy. A group of media organizations recently trained 32 Nigerian reporters in information verification and digital cybersecurity. 

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FIRST ON FOXThe White House is honoring law enforcement at the front lines of the battle to keep illicit fentanyl and other illegal drugs out of American communities — as the Biden administration says its sweeping drug control strategy is getting results in the fight against the opioid crisis.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Dr. Rahul Gupta is recognizing law enforcement groups who have shown themselves to be the “best of the best.”

The ONDCP U.S. Interdiction Committee Awards recognize the efforts and achievements of law enforcement agencies and individuals, and the awards show the broad scope of the fight against stopping drug trafficking.

“The awards highlight the best of the best out of almost 100 applications that our nation has to offer in terms of investigations, as well as going after in every way possible the bad guys to disrupt and dismantle the drug trafficking organizations, which are really criminal networks,” Gupta said in an interview ahead of the awards with Fox News Digital.

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The U.S. has been locked in an opioid crisis for years, with deaths from fentanyl overdoses spiking into the tens of thousands in recent years. The drug is primarily created in Mexico using Chinese precursors and then trafficked across the U.S. southern land border. The U.S. has called for an international coalition to tackle the crisis.

However, the threat is evolving, as highlighted in the efforts recognized at the White House. One of the investigations highlighted was a probe by the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Postal Service and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office targeting a dark web vendor that was trafficking fentanyl, heroin, MDMA and cocaine. The vendor had been linked to at least one death in Utah. The investigation shut down the vendor and arrested those associated with it. 

Gupta said the case shows how the threat is “constantly changing.”

BIDEN ANNOUNCES NEW NORTHERN BORDER DEAL, FENTANYL COALITION WITH CANADA

“The drug traffickers and produce will continue to evolve because they’ll be responsive to our actions. Now, what has happened in the past administrations often is we are. Exclusively reactionary. And what we’re doing different in this administration is both looking at the task at hand today, as well as preparing for the future actions that will happen as a result of reactionary forces of the cartels,” he said.

The awards will also highlight the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Operation Titan Fall — which took down a violent drug trafficking organization in Florida and seized firearms and over 100 kilograms of cocaine, fentanyl and heroin.

Gupta noted a Nov. 17, 2022 operation, in which Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations chased two ships to Puerto Rico, believing them to be smuggling cocaine. They were fired upon, leading to one agent — Michael Maceda — being killed and two others injured. However, the boats were stopped, the suspects arrested and over 2,800 pounds of cocaine seized. A moment of silence was held at the ceremony on Thursday to honor Maceda’s sacrifice.

“So his ultimate sacrifice in defense of our nation is what we’re celebrating today. We’re also celebrating not just the great work, investigatory and hard work that our women and men do in uniform every single day. But we’re thankful to people who have paid this sacrifice with their life, the ultimate sacrifice in their work,” Gupta told Fox.

Meanwhile, Operation Chain Break — launched by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations — targeted Chinese pill press manufacturers and Mexican cartels that used it. The DEA will also be honored for its investigation into the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which led to dozens of arrests and the seizure of thousands of pounds of cocaine.

The awards are tied to the Biden administration’s National Drug Control Strategy, which has looked to simultaneously address addiction and aid in treatment for those addicted, while also tackling the criminal organizations behind the multibillion-dollar effort to get Americans hooked on poison.

FENTANYL IS BECOMING MORE ACCESSIBLE TO KIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA, RAISING ALARMS FOR PARENTS

Gupta said there were two drivers of the strategy, “One, untreated addiction, which is creating the addiction infrastructure there needs to be to help Americans get the help when and where they need it. Two, Drug trafficking and its profits that push the trade of this. So we’re both getting people the help they need when and where, as well as going after the drug traffickers, producers and their profits.”

Gupta said there are signs of success. He pointed to 34,000 pounds of fentanyl seized and $22 billion denied to drug producers and traffickers, and more law enforcement operations accompanying the expansion of treatments and availability of drugs like Narcan. He also pointed to the use of non-intrusive inspection tech at ports of entry — including in Nogales, Arizona, which led to a 445% increase in seizures and about 38 million pills seized.

Additionally, the White House has highlighted that the spike in overdose deaths since 2018 has flattened in 2022 and 2023. Gupta doubled down on President Biden’s calls for additional funding from Congress to fight the crisis, calling it now an “inflection point.”

“We need to double down on our efforts that are working, clearly, and that that that includes making sure that we’re implementing all these policies and getting the Congress to provide the funding that the president has requested for the drug control budget, which is $46.1 billion and is historic and unprecedented because there’s no more important things to do than to save American lives,” Gupta said.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blasted House Democrats who he said were trying “to censor a censorship hearing” Thursday after 102 of them signed a letter asking him to be disinvited from testifying before the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

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Susroonya Koduru was at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site in Houston when she was struck by lightning July 2.

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Swedish Embassy In Baghdad Burned As Iraqis Storm Compound Over Planned Quran-Burning

Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/20/2023 – 11:15

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Investors in Japan’s bond market are bracing for turbulence that has the potential to test the Bank of Japan’s yield target in the lead up to next weeks policy decision.

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The Smile, Bon Iver, Killer Mike, Big Thief and Panda Bear are atop this year’s bill.

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Ahead of the second Russia-Africa summit, which is taking place in Saint Petersburg from July 27 to 28, FRANCE 24 takes a closer look at Russian influence in Africa. In a special edition of Reporters, we investigated pan-African influencers, who are suspected of relaying Kremlin ideology. Who are they, what are their networks and how strong is their political influence? Watch an excerpt of “Africa under Russian influence”, on the eve of its online publication on Friday July 21 and TV premiere on Saturday July 22. 

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