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Trending: Sex, monks and video fakes

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Sex, monks and video fakes

31/10/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Trending, Sex, monks and video fakes

How Cambodia’s top human rights activist was driven into exile by a state smear campaign.

Cambodia’s leading human rights campaigner fled in exile after being targeted by a government smear campaign. Should Facebook have done more to stop its platform being weaponised?

Luon Sovath is a softly spoken Buddhist monk who has long been a thorn in the side of the Cambodian government. And now, he’s been targeted by a state-sponsored disinformation campaign.

Earlier this year, a series of mysterious videos appeared on Facebook, accusing him of having affairs with four women from the same family.

Soon after he was defrocked and charged with raping another woman, one who didn’t feature in the videos. 

Luon Sovath denies all the allegations, and fled the country to go into exile in Switzerland. He and his supporters say he was the victim of an obvious smear campaign. Human rights organisations say the people responsible didn’t cover their tracks very well – and that officials operate with impunity in Cambodia.

Should Facebook have moved quicker to disrupt an online plot to destroy a powerful voice for the powerless?

Presenter: Reha Kansara
Reporter: Ed Main

Photo: Luon Sovath in the Swiss countryside
Photo credit: Luon Sovath

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