Cambodia builds Chinese-style "Great Firewall", critics call it "a disaster for human rights"

 The Cambodian government has announced that it will establish a Chinese-style Internet portal that will allow surveillance and control of Internet use, and critics fear that the democratic freedoms of the Cambodian people will be threatened.

Prime Minister Hun Sen signed the decree on Internet portals on Wednesday (February 17), saying that the decree aims to promote and manage Internet connections to improve taxation, protect national security, and maintain social order.

Reuters reported that the order requires Internet service providers to connect their services to the national Internet portal within one year and requires service providers to let users fill out online forms with the correct identity.

If the network connection portal fails, the service provider's operating license will be revoked and bank accounts will be frozen.

Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan told AFP on Wednesday that authorities "will eliminate those (Internet) users who want to rebel against the government."

Prime Minister Hun Sen has cracked down on dissent in recent years, with some even jailed. Just in 2017, the Supreme Court of Cambodia also ruled to dissolve the Cambodian opposition party, the CNRP. Hun Sen's government's actions also drew criticism from the international community.

Emerlynne Gil, Amnesty International's deputy regional director, said Cambodia's new internet portal was a "disaster for human rights," Reuters reported.

Gill said "this development is particularly worrying" against the backdrop of escalating repression against human rights defenders, mass trials of opposition supporters and the growing number of prisoners of conscience.

The Cambodian government's new national internet portal will enable the government to increase online surveillance, censorship and control of the internet, which would be a serious violation of free speech and privacy rights, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Cambodia’s new national internet portal will strengthen the government’s ability to block online content and allow independent voices, including the media, political opposition and civil society groups, to gain access to Politically motivated restrictions.”