Cambodia now has its own version of WhatsApp. Critics fear it could be used for surveillance
CNN
Cambodian strongman leader Hun Sen has thrown his weight behind a new homegrown messaging app, which critics say is a way for the government to monitor and undermine political discussion in the country.
Cambodian strongman leader Hun Sen has thrown his weight behind a new homegrown messaging app, which critics say is a way for the government to monitor and undermine political discussion in the country. CoolApp, launched this month to rival WhatsApp and Telegram, will make it “difficult for foreigners to interfere with our information,” the former prime minister wrote in a post on his official Facebook page this week, adding that he was mindful of “national security.” “It is the first-ever Cambodian program and used within the Cambodian security domain,” he wrote. “Other countries have their own social media means of communication like China’s WeChat, Vietnam’s Zalo, South Korea’s Kakao Talk and Russia’s Telegram, so in Cambodia, we have … our own product,” he added. One of the world’s longest-serving leaders, Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia with an iron fist for more than three decades. Though his eldest son, Hun Manet, succeeded him as prime minister last year, Hun Sen remains the ruling party’s center of power. The country has been at the center of a multi-billion dollar online scam epidemic in Southeast Asia, run predominantly by Chinese gangs, which has raised global security concerns from bodies like the US State Department and the United Nations. CoolApp founder and CEO Lim Cheavutha told CNN the app has been downloaded 150,000 times and does not monitor, collect or store user data. It uses end-to-end encryption to ensure data and calls remain secure, he said.
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