In the weekly column we take turns writing about innovation and economic trends in Asia.
(Photo: Klawe Rzeczy)
Bangkok In the middle of their video conference, a guest who is as prominent as he is uninvited appears on the dissidents’ screens: it is the head of government himself who bursts into the zoom meeting of exile oppositionists. Their party has already been banned by his regime. Now the ruler is making it clear that online meetings are not safe from him either. The unusual performance, which government propaganda later exploited as a “warning to the rebels”, lasted twelve minutes.
The man behind the sensational action last September is Hun Sen, permanent ruler of the Southeast Asian emerging country of Cambodia. He has been in power there for 37 years. He is increasingly extending his authoritarian regime to the digital world. He wants to reach a new milestone in mid-February. From then on, all data connections in the country must run through a central government interface. Activists warn of a massive tightening of censorship and surveillance.
Cambodia’s government is not alone with the project: the free internet is on the decline in Asia – the most important growth region for global IT companies. Often inspired by the Chinese Communist Party, which shields its own population from the rest of the online world with its “Great Firewall”, governments on the continent are increasingly reaching for the greatest possible control over the Internet. The development is a hazard for anyone wishing to do business in the region.
The authorities in Myanmar, where the military took power a year ago, are particularly extreme. The generals, who have met with great resistance from the population, ordered the country’s Internet providers to block access to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Opponents of the coup had used the platforms to meet for protests. As a result, so-called VPNs have become popular among the population – online services with which the blocks can be circumvented. The regime now threatens arrest for anyone using VPNs. The planned tightening of the law will also affect companies that connect their staff to the company IT via a VPN connection.
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But it’s not just dictatorships trying to massively expand their influence on the internet. In India and Indonesia – the two most populous democracies in Asia – online freedom is also declining, and Western corporations are also feeling the effects.
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has repeatedly urged social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to remove posts critical of the government over the past year. Opposition politicians were also affected. And in an emergency, the authorities even switch off the Internet completely – for example during the anti-government protests in New Delhi last year.
Netflix banned for four years
A new regulation has been in force in Indonesia for several months, according to which Internet companies must ensure that they do not distribute any “forbidden content”. What is included is not precisely defined. Contributions that may cause “public unrest” are also affected. Activists speak of another instrument to restrict the right to freedom of expression, which is repeatedly torpedoed in Indonesia.
The streaming provider Netflix also felt the effects: between 2016 and 2020 it was not available via the lines of Indonesia’s most important telecom group. Netflix has been accused of violating state film censorship rules.
The example shows that the attempts at Internet control in Asia’s emerging countries are not only an issue for Internet activists and human rights organizations: the more countries restrict access to online content, following China’s example, the more endangered is free international trade in digital goods and services. Politicians from the Republicans and Democrats in the US Senate rightly condemned the Internet restrictions in several Asian countries as anti-competitive business barriers. In order to counteract this worrying trend, Europe would also be well advised to advocate a free Internet with more vehemence in future trade talks.
More: Why half of all voice messages on Facebook are from Cambodia