Fears Cambodia is rolling out China-style ‘Great Firewall’ to curb online freedom

A China-style internet gateway scheduled to be imposed in Cambodia this week would grant the government far greater powers to conduct mass surveillance, censor and control the country's internet, rights groups have warned.

Human rights experts and media advocates fear the gateway could be a step towards the kind of censorship enforced through China's Great Firewall - though some question what technical capacity Cambodia's systems currently have, and say the process has lacked transparency.

Under the changes, all online traffic must pass through a National Internet Gateway (NIG), which the government says will protect national security, help with tax collection and preserve "social order, culture and national tradition".

Rights experts say the internet is one of the few spaces that still allows for free expression, including criticism of the government of prime minister Hun Sen, who has been in power for more than three decades. Under his rule, the main opposition party has been outlawed, independent media severely curtailed and peaceful protesters have faced violence.

Having stamped out dissent elsewhere, the government is now seeking to further expand its control over the online sphere, rights advocates have warned. "They want to have a hermetically controlled political environment where they are lord and master and anything they say goes - and anybody who objects gets sent to prison," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

Internet service providers were required to reroute their traffic through the gateway by this week. The Cambodian government did not respond when asked about the timeframe for implementation, or the human rights concerns which have been raised. It has previously rejected comments by UN experts that the legislation is repressive, with the country's Permanent Mission to the UN Offices in Geneva accusing the experts of making unfounded allegations and interfering in Cambodia's domestic affairs.

The authorities have increasingly taken steps to clamp down on online expression, including by jailing individuals over posts, messages and even music. Last year, at least 35 individuals were arrested, five had arrest warrants issued against them, and 21 were convicted for online posts, according to the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR).