២២ កញ្ញា ២០២៣ / 22 September 2023 - Article in English
ក្នុងអត្ថបទ និពន្ធដោយលោក សម រង្ស៊ី ជាភាសាអង់គ្លេស ចុះផ្សាយថ្ងៃនេះ ក្នុងសារព័ត៌មានអន្តរជាតិ Nikkei Asia ដ៏ល្បីល្បាញ មានការបញ្ជាក់ថា ក្រុមហ៊ុនអាមេរិកាំង Facebook ទទួលស្គាល់ថា មានជនពាលមួយក្រុម ដឹកនាំដោយលោក ហ៊ុន ម៉ាណែត បានសរសេរមួលបង្កាច់លោក សម រង្ស៊ី ដើម្បីឲ្យក្រុមហ៊ុន Facebook រឹតត្បិតការផ្សព្វផ្សាយទំព័រ Facebook របស់លោក សម រង្ស៊ី។ តែជនពាលទាំងនោះ ត្រូវបានក្រុមហ៊ុន Facebook វែកមុខរកឃើញហើយ។
NIKKEI ASIA
September 22, 2023
IMITATORS ARE ADOPTING CHINESE TACTICS TO QUASH ONLINE CRITICS
Allies like Cambodia and Bangladesh are deploying fake voices to drown out dissent
By Sam Rainsy
Facebook's network management tools are proving inadequate to deal with the Chinese-inspired army of bots deployed by Cambodia's dictatorship to shout down dissenting voices. This failure could have global implications for democracy.
The Cambodian government already exercises control over the overwhelming majority of Khmer- and English-language media in the country. This, though, is not sufficient for a regime unwilling to brook any kind of dissent.
In my own experience, I have discovered fake accounts created for the purpose of triggering Facebook algorithms to restrict access to or remove content I had posted. The false triggers have been repeatedly flagged to Facebook, which has fixed some of them, but the bot attacks continue.
In August, a video posted on my account was flagged for drug-related, suicide-related, sexual and violent content. In fact, it was a discussion about nepotism in Cambodia in the context of Hun Sen's passing of the premiership to his son Hun Manet in August and a broader generational transfer of power.
On Sept. 1, a 2018 post containing a translation of a New York Times story about Chinese debt trap policies in Sri Lanka was removed for "cybersecurity" reasons. Another removed earlier this week talked about job creation and Cambodia's economic recovery, but was flagged as related to drugs and suicide.
This is not just a Cambodian problem. In August, Meta, Facebook's parent company, said that it had uncovered a covert network of thousands of accounts intended to promote Beijing's agenda and smother its critics in places including the U.S., Taiwan, Australia, Britain and Japan.
Democratic societies depend on citizens being able to make informed decisions based on accurate information. This is something that China and its allies are determined to undermine everywhere. Two weeks ago, Microsoft analysts said they had found a network of fake social media accounts that were posting content created by artificial intelligence to influence American voters.
In Southeast Asia, rising internet penetration rates, combined with government controls on traditional media, have increased the political importance of platforms such as Facebook.
This has helped make the region a crucial growth market for Meta, accounting for four of the 10 countries with the most Facebook users in the world. As yet, there is no sign that the platform has fully grasped the implications of this, let alone addressed them.
Research by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington found that the Thai military has used fake accounts and bots to promote the monarchy and attack supporters of democracy on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Agence France-Presse, meanwhile, counted hundreds of opinion articles in the Bangladeshi media by apparently fake authors who praised Dhaka and Beijing but attacked Washington; Bangladesh is due to hold national elections in the coming months.
This month, RAND Corp. researchers said they believe Chinese agents are looking to use generative AI tools to influence Taiwan's upcoming election in January.
The use of such tactics in Cambodia is long established. Researchers using social media analytics tools found that Hun Sen used click farms in places like the Philippines and India to build his page's large following. A few months before its enforced closure in 2017, Cambodia Daily said that five people who had worked in the ruling Cambodian People's Party's Cyber War Room, then headed by Hun Manet, had confirmed the existence of the operation.
In June, Facebook's oversight board recommended the suspension of Hun Sen's Facebook and Instagram accounts in response to violent threats he had posted. Hun Sen then made a show of closing his account and threatening to ban Facebook, but after Facebook set aside the suspension suggestion, he rejoined the platform on Sept. 3.
Allowing dictators to make public threats on social media while suppressing other voices is not showing neutrality. Facebook and other social media platforms do not yet seem to have grasped the extent to which repressive Chinese tactics are driving the quashing of online dissent in allied nations such as Bangladesh and Cambodia.
The use of bots to drive the removal of posts should not be seen as an isolated political incident. Such conduct needs to be addressed in a holistic way by the major social media networks if they are to protect the integrity of their platforms.
Facebook needs to improve its algorithms to stop bot attacks, and if that cannot readily be done, then the threshold for removing flagged content, especially of a political nature, should be much higher. If the algorithms cannot manage that, then the company needs to spend more on human analysis of whether material is genuinely unsuitable or in fact represents a legitimate political point of view. This is especially crucial in the context of dictatorial regimes and would help reduce the impact of disinformation which poses a threat to democracy everywhere.
Sam Rainsy is interim leader and co-founder of the Cambodia National Rescue Party and previously served as finance minister.
Khmer
English
French
