Cambodian citizens have frequently been targeted by authorities over political speech on Facebook critical of the ruling party (Dara & Baliga, 2018). In 2014 the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit created a task force known as the Cyber War Team, which monitors, collects and diffuses information on social media platforms to “protect the government’s stance and prestige” (Blomberg & Naren, 2014). In a ministerial order signed on 28 May 2018, three ministries agreed to work with telecoms firms “to prevent the spread of information that can cause social chaos and threaten national security.” (Vicheika, 2018). Table 1: Organizational Form and Prevalence of Social Media Manipulation in Cambodia Initial Government Politicians & Private Civil Society Citizens & Report Agencies Parties Contractors Organizations Influencers Ministry of Evidence Evidence Information, Cyber found found War Team at the Press and Quick Reaction Unit Source: Authors’ evaluations based on data collected. Blank spaces indicate no evidence was found. Strategies, Tools, and Techniques In Cambodia, as reported in many other Southeast Asia countries, many journalists, academics, and political figures appeared to have gained hundreds of new Twitter followers at the beginning of 2018. Prominent Twitter users in Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka noticed the same phenomenon—a surge in followers from anonymous, recently created accounts, adopting local sounding names but barely engaging on the platform (The Straits Times Staff, 2018). In each country, the accounts use regionally authentic names, languages and profile photos to follow local influencers (Ruiz & Saksornchai, 2018). The accounts were created in March 2018 and have since followed hundreds of Twitter users, but most have not tweeted or accrued any followers themselves (O’Byrne, 2018). Hundreds of the accounts with Cambodian names have followed a variety of Cambodia-based Twitter users, including the Ministry of Education, the Quick Press Reaction Unit, Australian Ambassador to Cambodia Angela Corcoran, the CNRP’s Deputy Director-general of Public Affairs Kem Monovithya, and dozens of reporters at Cambodia-based news outlets (O’Byrne, 2018). For example, Maya Gilliss-Chapman, a Cambodian tech entrepreneur, said her Twitter account @MayaGC was being swamped by a daily deluge of follows from new users. She says she acquired over 1,000 new followers since the beginning of March (The Straits Times, 2018). Danielle Keeton-Olsen, an American journalist in Cambodia, said her Twitter followers surged from about 700 to over 1,700 in April 2018 (Ruiz & Saksornchai, 2018). Some affected users have speculated that one or more state actors might be behind the new accounts (Reed, 2018). The proliferation of false information is a problem in Cambodia, as it is for other countries in the region. The government and the opposition often accuse each other of spreading false information, including leaked conversations about corrupt business dealings and politicians’ infidelity (Hutt, 2017). Prime Minister Hun Sen regularly accuses critical media outlets of spreading “fake news” (Lema & Wongcha-um, 2018). The term “fake news,” however, is routinely manipulated by politicians in order to stifle criticism against them (Dara & Baliga, 2018). 67