by Rafael Frankel, Meta’s Director of Public Policy for Southeast Asia, he told policymakers in the Philippines in April 2025 that there were no plans at that time to switch from third-party fact-checking to Community Notes globally, apart from in the U.S.41 Southeast Asia has been a lucrative market for social media platforms. Facebook remains the most popular platform in the region, with four Southeast Asian countries among the top 10 worldwide with the largest number of Facebook users42. In 2025, Indonesia ranked third with 122 million active Facebook users, the Philippines ranked sixth with 90.8 million, Vietnam ranked seventh with 76.2 million, and Thailand ranked ninth with 51 million active users43. Given the large user base, social media platforms play a crucial role in Southeast Asia’s political landscape. This is also why regimes across the region have tried to control how these platforms operate within their borders, as social media is a key space where critics and independent outlets publish content critical of those in power. On many occasions, Meta has been documented assisting regimes in Southeast Asia in cracking down on such content. As of 2025, this remains a major concern. In Vietnam, Meta has long been reported to cooperate with the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). In 2025, the platform allegedly geo-blocked the pages of several human rights activists, the independent media outlet Thoibao.de, and the political party Viet Tan, which advocates for reforms in Vietnam. These blocks were reportedly implemented at the request of the CPV 44 . At the beginning of 2025, it was also reported that posts from the Vietnamese-language Facebook pages of BBC, VOA, and RFA temporarily disappeared45. Although the posts later reappeared, these three media outlets have frequently been criticized by the CPV. Meta did not respond to the incident. Panti, Llanesca T. “Meta Says It Won’t Drop Fact-Checking System Outside US.” GMA News Online, 15 Jan. 2025, www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/942306/meta-says-it-won-t-drop-factchecking-system-outside-us/story. 42. “Facebook Users, Stats, Data & Trends for 2025.” DataReportal, 12 Mar. 2025, datareportal.com/ essential-facebook-stats. 43. Ibid. 44. Trịnh, Long Hữu, and Lê Giang. “Facebook Blocked the Pages of Lê Trung Koa, Nguyễn Văn Đài , and Việt Tân in Vietnam—at the Request of the Government.” Luật Khoa, 8 Dec. 2025, luatkhoa.com/2025/12/facebookchan-trang-cua-le-trung-khoa-nguyen-van-dai-va-viet-tan-o-viet-nam-theo-yeu-cau-cua-chinh-phu. 45. “Content on RFA’s Facebook Page Suddenly Disappeared Without a Trace.” Radio Free Asia, 30 Jan. 2025, www.rfa.org/vietnamese/trong-nuoc/2025/01/30/noi-dung-tren-facebook-cua-rfa-tieng-viet-tu-nam-2024den-2025-bien-mat. 41. 16