DEMOCRACY DISCONNECTED: SOCIAL MEDIA’S CAUSTIC INFLUENCE ON SOUTHEAST ASIA’S FRAGILE REPUBLICS come under fire for being a thinly-veiled effort to criminalize dissent under the guise of a broader effort to avert domestic unrest.95 There is a growing chorus of voices around the globe advocating for social media firms to assume a more proactive role in controlling the content shared on their platforms. Supporters of this corporate responsibility approach to curbing online disinformation argue in favor of both human and technological interventions to prevent falsehoods from running rampant.96 While it may certainly be the case that the operators of social media platforms could be doing more to monitor and censor the information traversing their systems, there is also a legitimate question as to the effectiveness of such measures. In fact, corporate meddling may in some cases be accompanied by unintended consequences that prove more harmful than helpful. Take for instance an experiment that Facebook began in 2017 on its news feed in six countries, which included Cambodia. In these locations, the company separated content produced by news sites from that originating from friends and family. While the latter continued to populate the news feed that greeted users when they logged in, the posts from news organizations and other publishers were relegated to a new section called “Explore.” The change resulted in an amplification of false stories because of the greater difficulty in accessing more objective sources of information.97 Although the company announced it was ending the test in March 2018, a worldwide alteration to the news feed algorithm intended to increase “meaningful interaction” on Facebook was rolled out earlier in the year with a similar effect.98 Actions taken by Facebook specifically to prevent misuse of its platform have repeatedly posed dilemmas for the company. For example, the policy that users should have profile names that match their true names is intended, at least in part, to authenticate the identity of its users in an effort to prevent nefarious activity on the site. This stipulation has not only done little to prevent the creation of fake accounts, but it has jeopardized the safety of dissidents in countries such as Thailand, where the junta-led government has been able to track the activities of its critics.99 Another predicament has arisen from Facebook’s deference to local laws in the places in which it operates. Given the highly politicized nature of the judicial system in several Southeast Asian countries, the company has time and again found itself caught up in controversy for allegedly taking sides in conflicts while doing the bidding of despots.100 Even Facebook’s use of human monitors to flag objectionable content has proven problematic. The volume of material uploaded to the site is so great and the number of native-speaking monitors 95 Erin Handley, “Freedom of Expression Online in Cambodia ‘Stifled by Laws,’” The Phnom Penh Post, April 25, 2018, https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/freedom-expression-online-cambodia-stifled-laws. 96 Farhad Manjoo and Kevin Roose, “How to Fix Facebook? We Asked 9 Experts,” The New York Times, October 31, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/31/technology/how-to-fix-facebook-we-asked-9-experts.html. 97 Sheera Frenkel, Nicholas Casey, and Paul Mozur, “In Some Countries, Facebook’s Fiddling Has Magnified Fake News,” The New York Times, January 14, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/14/technology/facebook-newsfeed-changes.html. 98 Sheera Frenkel, “Facebook to End News Feed Experiment in 6 Countries That Magnified Fake News,” The New York Times, March 1, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/technology/facebook-end-news-feedexperiment-six-countries-that-magnified-fake-news.html. 99 Scott Shane and Mike Isaac, “Facebook Says It’s Policing Fake Accounts. But They’re Still Easy to Spot,” The New York Times, November 3, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/technology/facebook-fake-accounts. html; Christina Larson, “Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created,” Foreign Policy, November 7, 2017, http:// foreignpolicy.com/2017/11/07/facebook-cant-cope-with-the-world-its-created/. 100 David Hutt, “Is Facebook Putting Profit Before Freedom in Southeast Asia?” Asia Times, May 2, 2017, http:// www.atimes.com/article/facebook-putting-profit-freedom-seasia/. Foreign Policy at Brookings | 19