All internet traffic in Cambodia will go through a mandatory government gateway as of this week. The measure gives the regime in the country more options for censorship and surveillance.
The gateway was already announced last year but will go into effect this week. In addition, all operators are obliged to send their internet traffic through a national gateway where the government has access to the traffic. As a result, uncooperative operators risk losing their license or losing access to their bank accounts.
Formally, the national gateway is there to help with national security and maintain social order.
In practice, it is primarily a useful means of scrutinizing the internet traffic of dissidents and of censoring information from outside Cambodia where necessary. China, among others, has had a similar system for years, as a result of which many news sites or Wikipedia cannot be visited from the country.
Cambodia’s single-party government also filled all 125 seats in parliament after the country banned the opposition.
