Facebook Judge Favors Cambodian Exile on Data Demand

(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. may have to turn over information on its platform to an exiled Cambodian politician who's trying to defend himself against charges by the ruling regime that would send him to prison if he returns.

A magistrate judge said Monday she'll probably order the social media giant to furnish some -- but not all -- of the records sought by opposition party leader Sam Rainsy, who has accused longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen of misusing the network to spread propaganda. Sam Rainsy, who has lived out of the country since 2015, is also fighting multiple criminal and civil claims brought against him and contends the Facebook data will help prove the accusations are trumped-up.

"I'm likely going to give Mr. Sam the ability to get some information from Facebook," U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim said during a hearing in San Francisco.

Facebook said it didn't want to be drawn into a political dispute between the ruling and opposition parties of Cambodia. The company said Sam Rainsy was on “a fishing expedition” and that complying with his demand would force it to reveal the prime minister's private communications and account activity of his opponents, in violation of U.S. privacy laws.

A lawyer for the company told the judge that Sam Rainsy's efforts to pry into “likes” posted on Hun Sen's Facebook page poses a “significant problem” given the company's obligations to honor user privacy. Sam Rainsy contends millions of those “likes” were manufactured by “click farms.”

“We cannot go around telling him which users ‘like' the prime minister on which dates,” attorney Joshua Lipshutz told Kim, arguing that such information amounts to “content” that's protected by federal law.

Kim said she intends to tailor her order to direct Facebook to turn over information that specifically relates to the charges facing Sam Rainsy.

The case is Sam Rainsy v. Facebook, 18-mc-80024, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco).

To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg

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