as part of their governance models. This tension between economic development and democratic development is present in most states in the region. Despite the tensions between the economic and political imperatives, e-governance in many states has evolved to take into account the channels for two-way information flow and citizen participation. The ruling elite in Singapore has extensively used social media to share information, shape the political narrative, and close the affective gap through dialogic communication. Likewise, the Vietnamese government has used social media platforms such as Facebook and the home-grown Zalo to communicate with the public. In Malaysia, the government uses its Facebook page to raise public awareness about various issues. Electoral politics and social media In the area of electoral politics, while for some states social media is a leveller between dominant political parties and their opponents, for others, it is a fierce battleground which produces conflicting and often confusing narratives. Social media allows more citizens to participate in the democratic process. At the same time, the quality of democratic discourse and decision-making can be adversely affected by the “cyberwar” between the contending parties online. For example, social media did play a significant part during Malaysia’s 14th General Election in enabling the political coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH) to unseat the Barisan Nasional (BN) party that had been in power for 57 years. The leader of PH, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, strategically used social media throughout the election campaign to reach out to larger numbers of people and forge a common cause with them, using Facebook Live to deliver his final campaign speech on the eve of the polling day. In contrast, social media has not enabled any serious electoral wins for opposition parties in Singapore, although the scope for democratic discourse has been changed by informal political actors through the use of humour and satire on Twitter starting around the time of the 2011 general elections in Singapore. Indeed the direction and pace of change is by no means assured, especially as state actors become more adept at the use of social media to consolidate their power. During the 2014 Indonesian general election, many tweets fell within the category of propaganda and the use by candidates of mass media celebrities with social media profiles shifted the focus from rational-critical discourse of electoral issues to the emotional attachment of fandom. In a pattern that matches events in the Western world, another important impact that social media has had on electoral politics in some Southeast Asian states is the creation of echo chambers. For example, in the case of Thailand’s general election, selective exposure led to a lack of interaction across ideological divides, and these echo chambers gave rise to the emergence of fascist vigilante groups on Facebook in Thailand. Activism and social media While governments within the region seek to leverage on social media to advance economic development even as they simultaneously protect existing power relations, activists have used the same technology to expand the spaces for democratic discourse and, in some cases, to push back against state and corporate interests. For example in Malaysia, social media was successfully used by activists to collaborate with international activist organisations and mobilise public sentiment against an Australian mining company. Similarly, in the case of Indonesia, an anti-mining campaign was conducted against a Chinese company in Bangka, using social media to increase awareness and mobilise support from the public. The complexity of social media activism is further seen in the example of the movement for LGBT rights in Singapore. While as yet unsuccessful in acquiring these rights, the 10-year-old Pink Dot movement has succeeded in using social media to mobilise increasing numbers of citizens at the annual event organised to create a visually arresting formation for social media circulation. Perhaps the most striking recent instance of the use of social media by activists is the Bersih movement in Malaysia which called for free and fair elections, and ultimately did pave the way for a regime change in 2018. Facebook was used by the movement to reach out to young people, involve large numbers of people in decision making, and forge temporary solidarities. Conclusion Social media is often strategically used by citizens and activists in Southeast Asian states to further democratic politics by negotiating space for democratic engagement. It is also used by governments to consolidate antidemocratic mechanisms. For example, some governments in the region are considering anticipatory social media regulations against online disinformation (or “fake news”) that activists fear could stifle the democratic discourse. At the same time, as states move towards governance models based on large-scale data collection enabled by technological corporations, a new external challenge has arisen in the form of cyberterrorism. In the face of concern about threats to national security such as online disinformation and cyberterrorism that require citizen vigilance and agency, states with hybrid political systems in Southeast Asia contend with a citizenry of their making that may not be equipped to mount the required resistance. In the manner of Nobel Laureate and economist Amartya Sen, the time may be right to consider a more, rather than less, democratic response. The question that now remains is whether the Southeast Asian region can withstand the challenges of social media and big data without democracy. Dr. Shobha Avadhani is Instructor at the Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore. 13 — ISSUE 5/2018