Anyone who purchased a mobile phone SIM card without providing appropriate ID can expect to see those phone numbers terminated, while any retailer selling SIM cards without collecting identification documents faces arrest, the government announced yesterday.

“Telecom operators must tell [existing] customers, including foreigners, that they must complete ID documents within three months or their numbers will be automatically deleted,” Chhay Sinarith, National Police deputy chief, said yesterday at a press conference held jointly with Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Director-General Mao Chakyra...

The crackdown, which begins today, will see any retailer found selling a SIM card without forwarding ID details to the government temporarily detained and “educated” or formally arrested...

However, human rights defenders are already voicing concerns that the crackdown on SIM cards is part of a wider chipping away at civil liberties.

“When the Ministry of Interior announced the introduction of surveillance equipment on all of Cambodia’s internet service providers and cell networks in December 2014, the spokesman stated that the motivation was to ‘control people’ using mobile services,” said Chak Sopheap, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.

“In light of the recent arrests of ordinary people and opposition figures for Facebook posts, this apparently innocuous regulation can be seen as a real threat to freedom of expression in Cambodia.”...