Kong
Raiya poses for a photo in Preah Vihear last month before being
arrested by authorities for comments he made on social media. PHOTO
SUPPLIED
Monitoring the internet
Coming on the heels of high-profile arrests linked directly to
Facebook posts, the Interior Ministry has revealed plans to establish a
new “anti-cybercrime” department that will not only “crack down” on
crimes like hacking, but a broad range of misdeeds open to
interpretation including incitement and insulting or racist language.
Working with other branches of government as well as private service
providers, the new department will “gather and analyse”
telecommunications data to discover online crime and national security
threats, according to a sub-decree signed on August 19 and revealed
yesterday.
“This department will cooperate with all the involved institutions in
order to intercept online crime, because if the crime is not halted, it
will put society in danger,” National Police spokesman Kirt Chantharith
said, adding that a director and deputy director had yet to be selected
for the “long planned” department.
However, after recent arrests linked to social media posts, human
rights groups and the opposition yesterday doubted the government’s
intentions, calling the department another weapon to stifle dissent
among Cambodia’s booming online community.
“I’m afraid this is a systematic crackdown on opinion,” Cambodia National Rescue Party spokesman Yim Sovann said.
“You can see the crackdown on NGOs; they arrest the CRNP activists
and leaders, and now they set up a team to crack down on the internet,
on Facebook.”
The Council of Ministers, however, has since established a “Cyber War
Team” to monitor online activity and maintain the prestige of the
Cambodian government.
Despite its name, government spokesman Phay Siphan said it was more
like a media monitor, checking “open source" information to “evaluate
the news”.
But Interior Ministry spokesman General Khieu Sopheak said that, in
contrast to the Cyber War Team, the new department’s staff of judicial
police will be fully empowered to investigate and compel cooperation.
He added: “This team also has the right to crack down on the crimes.”
On August 15, Sam Rainsy Party Senator Hong Sok Hour was arrested by
armed police after posting to Facebook a “fake” version of a 1979 border
treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam.
Less than two weeks later, university student Kong Raiya was detained
after allegedly calling for a “colour revolution” on the social media
network.
Following the arrests, young bloggers said that they had increasingly
felt forced to self-censor for fear of a government backlash.
Cambodian Centre for Independent Media executive director Pa Nguon
Teang said that the cases showed the government didn’t need a cybercrime
bill to intimidate Cambodia’s internet users.
Teang called the plan “highly troubling”, saying authorities were
dedicating a significant amount of resources to policing the web.
“This becomes very concerning given the seeming overlap between these
efforts by the Ministry of Information, the activities of the Cyber War
Team announced last year, and the duties of the Ministry of Post and
Telecommunications,” Teang said.
“Without a clear legal framework establishing accountability lines
and clearly outlining the warrants or court orders required to obtain
users’ records, no one’s communications are secure.”
It was not immediately clear how the government might go about compelling internet service providers to provide information.
Am Sam Ath, a senior investigator with Cambodian rights group
Licadho, said it appeared the government was paving the way to finally
introduce its cybercrime law.
“This clearly shows that the government intends to control and
restrict those who wish to criticise the current government, as many
Cambodians dare to criticise the government through social networks,
especially Facebook,” Sam Ath said.
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