National Internet Gateways Are a Threat to the Internet

A proposal in Cambodia would turn the country’s Internet into a national Intranet.

In 2021, Cambodia issued a decree that required all Internet traffic in Cambodia to be rerouted through the National Internet Gateway by February 2022. The plans remain delayed, but if it’s implemented, it will not only affect Cambodia, but also the networks that interconnect with Cambodian networks. This could affect traffic within the region.

If this plan is implemented, this would mean that networks must connect to government-mandated locations, increasing the technical and financial barriers that network operators face in becoming part of the global Internet.

Since no other networks in the country can access the global Internet directly or independently, this will severely impact a network’s global reach and limit collaboration between Cambodia and the rest of the world by establishing barriers across the Internet ecosystem. The result is likely to be a significant degradation of network performance and increase in costs. In all likelihood, these costs will ultimately be passed on to Internet users.

Having designated providers run the gateway that funnels all Internet traffic in and out of the country while maintaining a few locations as local exchanges creates a rigid hierarchical network structure that scales less efficiently than the distributed network that is the Internet. The approach severely impacts networks’ global reach, limits collaborative internetworking, and thus has a negative effect on the open Internet.

This decree also says that ISPs must retain all traffic data for 12 months, and are required to report activity to the government in a way that’s traceable to specific individuals. This could include financial transactions, visiting certain websites deemed a threat to the government, or even your location data.

The Cambodian government says this will bolster national security and help crack down on tax fraud. But the impact on Cambodian network connections will affect anyone who connects with those networks, which could have serious consequences for social and economic life, as well as potentially endanger free expression.