Monitoring The Internet

[Pdoggg]

This is all about the power elite doing their best to retain power.

 

Most observers believe that if it were not for election fraud that the opposition party would have won the last election.

 

In my (statistically flawed sample) poll of Cambodians only two supported the current regime. One was a student who's Dad was active in the CPP.  He also cheated on his exam. The other was a bargirl of Vietnamese heritage.  Ethnic Vietnamese tend to support the current regime.

 

In a country where garment workers earn $120 a month in sweatshops, government money is being spent to subvert the will of the people rather than help people.   Of course this is not unique to Cambodia.

 

During election campaigns, in Phnom Penh there are parades.  The ruling party tends to have elaborate floats while the opposition are just people on motobikes, maybe a couple hundred people honking horns and waving political banners.  Social media makes it easy for people to organize.

 

One student told me, that today was "the best day of my life"  because he was in a CNRP parade. 

 

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/monitoring-internet

[xyzzy]

In days gone by it was often thought that the Cambo government used ISG posts to find places to bust. Whether they got the data from the internet or it was collected by NGOs. FWIW