CAMBODIA’S INTERNET MAY SOON BE LIKE CHINA’S
All internet traffic, even from abroad, will soon be sent through a govt-run portal.
The day Kea Sokun was arrested in Cambodia, four men in plainclothes showed up at his photography shop near Angkor Wat and carted him off to the police station. Kea Sokun, who is also a popular rapper, had released two songs on YouTube, and the men said they needed to know why he had written them.
“They kept asking me: ‘Who is behind you? What party do you vote for?’” Kea Sokun said. “I told them, ‘I have never even voted, and no one controls me.’”
The 23-year-old artist, who says his songs are about everyday struggles in Cambodia, was sentenced to 18 months in an overcrowded prison after a judge found him guilty of inciting social unrest with his lyrics. His case is part of a crackdown in which dozens have been sent to jail for posting jokes, pictures, private messages and songs on the internet.
The ramped-up scrutiny reflects an increasingly restrictive digital environment in Cambodia, where a new law will allow the authorities to monitor all web traffic in the country. Critics say that the decree puts Cambodia on a growing list of countries that have embraced China’s authoritarian model of internet surveillance, from Vietnam to Turkey.
Cambodia’s National Internet Gateway, set to begin operating Feb 16, will send all internet traffic — including from abroad — through a government-run portal. The gateway, which is mandatory for all service providers, gives state regulators the means to “prevent and disconnect all network connections that affect national income, security, social order, morality, culture, traditions and customs”.
Surveillance is already high in Cambodia. Each ministry has a team that monitors the internet. Offending content is reported to an internet crime unit in the Ministry of Interior, the centre of the country’s security apparatus. Those responsible can be charged with incitement and sent to prison.
“The authorities are emboldened by China as an example of an authoritarian state that gives Cambodia political cover, new technology and financial resources,” said Sophal Ear, whose family escaped the Khmer Rouge, a murderous regime that seized power in 1975.
“The National Internet Gateway is merely centralising what has been a decentralised system of control over Cambodia’s internet,” he said. “The outcome will be to crush what little remains of freedom of expression online.”
Authorities say it is essential for peace and security, dismissing allegations of censorship. “There is a free press in Cambodia and freedom on the internet,” said Phay Siphan, chief government spokesperson.
“With freedom comes responsibility,” he said. “We warn them. We lecture them, make them sign documents, then the next week they post the same things again.”