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Privacy The Internet

Cambodia's Internet May Soon Be Like China's: State-Controlled (nytimes.com) 24

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Under a new decree, all web traffic will be routed through a government portal. Rights groups say a crackdown on digital expression is about to get worse. From a report: 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. Mr. Kea Sokun, who is also a popular rapper, had released two songs on YouTube, and the men said they needed to know why he'd written them. "They kept asking me: âWho is behind you? What party do you vote for?'" Mr. 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, poems, 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, and that it will deepen the clash over the future of the web. Cambodia's National Internet Gateway, set to begin operating on 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." Government 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 center of the country's robust security apparatus. Those responsible can be charged with incitement and sent to prison.
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Cambodia's Internet May Soon Be Like China's: State-Controlled More

Cambodia's Internet May Soon Be Like China's: State-Controlled

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  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • >>You mean it wasn't already?

      Those were literally the first words out of my mouth when I read the title.
  • Isn't the world fucking lovely?

  • Turbulent, Turmoil. .... like we're not under state control here in the West. Other countries are catching up, usually with US hardware.

  • Now we see why the Chinese are really complaining about Starlink.

  • "prevent and disconnect all network connections that affect national income, security, social order, morality, culture, traditions and customs."

    I remember now. It's coming from the American Progressives.

  • if the progressives have their way, dissenters from the One True Faith will be treated exactly the same way here.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jemmyw ( 624065 )
      And if conservatives have their way you'll be forced to host whatever content any rando puts up. Both sides have been pushing against the status quo in the US, which is that you aren't responsible for what your users post but you can take it down if you want (I think it's a little more subtle than that in that you have to have terms in place).
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • China has been destroying statues of the Buddha, surely their propaganda potrays him as a lazy beggar however the CCP's rejection of the Buddha leaves them mired in their own pathetic samsara even more than the west which was the only voice against the Japanese as they trampled on Manchuria and Nanking in the 1930's. This was the only reason Pearl Harbor happened. FU , CCP. Let Freedom ring for Tibet, XinXiang, Taiwan. Kurdistan, Baluchistan.etc

  • A world headed tward fascism (Score:3)

    by Malays2 bowman ( 6656916 ) on Monday January 17, 2022 @09:31PM (#62182929)

    We are headed for a one world fascist government, and this article shows another piece of what's coming together.

      You won't even be considered a human being anymore, instead just a 'unit', with a police identification number to identify you. You will be a forever suspect, a potential enemy of the 'state', and they will constantly watch for any little thing to hang you for. They will always be hungry for your blood.

      People laugh now and say it won't happen. Well people laughed about communism and nazism too, said it would never happen before it ultimately did.

  • Will it be the traditional western companies like Cisco or will it be from China, like Huawei?

  • We're given, i.e. can't choose, govt controlled, corporate controlled, or both when it comes to public media. In the USA, the resulting comparison is that people who watch public broadcast media, e.g. PBS & federal govt websites, are fairly well informed, whereas those who watch corporate controlled media, e.g. Fox News & Facebook, often know less than those who watch nothing at all. Which do you prefer?

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