Internet & Online Safety · Cambodia
Online safety & content laws in Cambodia (2026)
Cambodia shaded by its internet & online safety status
Cambodia operates a heavily state-restricted internet environment in which the government blocks independent media websites, prosecutes critics for social media posts under broadly worded laws, and is actively advancing a National Internet Gateway that would route all domestic and international traffic through a single government-controlled choke point. In April 2026 the National Assembly passed a first-ever anti-technology-fraud cybercrime law primarily targeting scam operations, while a broader draft cybercrime law whose vague speech provisions have drawn sharp criticism from rights groups remains pending. No comprehensive online safety framework analogous to the EU DSA or UK OSA exists.
Key points
Sub-Decree No. 23 (16 February 2021) mandates that all Cambodian internet traffic pass through a single government-controlled gateway, enabling blanket censorship and surveillance; a May 2025 Ministry of Planning document names state telecom Telecom Cambodia and MPTC as responsible for infrastructure build-out starting 2026, though full implementation has been repeatedly delayed.
Passed unanimously by the National Assembly on 3 April 2026 and sent to the King for signature, this is Cambodia's first dedicated cybercrime statute; it targets pig-butchering scams, human trafficking for forced cyber-labour, and crypto money-laundering, with sentences of 15–30 years rising to life imprisonment where victims die.
A separate draft Law on Cybercrime criminalises online defamation, 'insulting or rude language', and sharing 'false information' harmful to public order or culture, and would authorise real-time interception of internet traffic; Access Now and civil-society groups warn its vague language falls far short of international human-rights standards and would arm authorities to prosecute dissidents and LGBTQ+ individuals.
The Ministry of Information orders ISPs to block independent outlets; days before the 2023 general election several news sites were blocked, and in 2023 HRW documented systematic blocking of independent media. Opposition politician Mer Seng Hor was jailed for 2.5 years in 2024 for Facebook criticism; a woman abroad was sentenced in absentia to two years in 2025 for social-media posts critical of the government.
The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, with UNICEF and the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, published non-binding Child Online Protection Guidelines for the digital industry; no statutory age-verification or mandatory platform-safety duty for children is yet in force.
No general platform-liability or content-moderation law exists; a draft Personal Data Protection Law was under consultation as of mid-2025 but had not been enacted. Cambodia scored 21/100 ('Not Free') on Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2025 assessment, reflecting the combination of surveillance infrastructure, speech prosecutions, and blocking orders.
Cambodia - other topics
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