Curtailing Free Expression, Opinion and Information Online in Southeast Asia application to Filipino nationals posting information online outside of the Philippines.475 Lao PDR In July 2019, Laos’ Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism issued a government order requiring all administrators of news and information-sharing groups on social media platforms to register with the ministry’s media departments, towards “controlling the spread of fake news and disinformation on social media”.476 In announcing the order, the Director-General of the ministry’s Mass Media Department noted that this regulation would operate in line with Laos’ Law on Prevention and Combating Cyber Crime 2015 (‘Law on Cybercrime’), which under article 8 criminalizes the “causing of damages via online social media” with up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 20 million Kip (approx. USD 2,290).477 Social media platforms must also operate in accordance with the amended Media Law of 2008, enacted in 2016, to “ensure that the media implements their duties … to be a sharp voice of the (ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary) Party and the people in order to propagate the guidelines and directions, and laws and social-economic development plans of the State”.478 Lack of clarity about how the government order will be imposed in practice and the Lao government’s track record in clamping down on freedom of expression, whether online or otherwise, raise serious concerns that this new order will effectively further curtail independent reporting and information online. This risk is intensified by the Media Law, which provides for near-absolute State control of the media,479 and the Law on Cybercrime. This Law provides for criminal liability for overbroadly conceived “offences” such as “causing of damages via online social media” which includes the 475 AFC Bill, section 9. 476 Richard Lipes, ‘Laos Moves to Register Private Online News Sites in a Bid to Control ‘Fake News’’, Radio Free Asia, 19 July 2019, Available at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/ register-07192019160935.html; Souksakhone Vaenkeo, ‘Ministry orders registration of social media news platforms in Laos’, Asia News Network, 16 July 2019, Available at: http://annx. asianews.network/content/ministry-orders-registration-social-media-news-platforms-laos-100198 477 Ibid.; Law on Prevention and Combating Cyber Crime 2015 (No. 61/NA)(‘Law on Cybercrime’), articles 8, 13, 62(5), English translation available at: https://www.laocert.gov.la/ftp_upload/ Cyber_Crime_Law_EnVersion.pdf 478 Vientiane Times, ‘Social media platforms yet to register as required by law’, 10 August 2019, Available at: http://www.vientianetimes.org.la; Ounkeo Souksavanh, Roseanne Gerin, ‘Lao Lawmakers Approve Restrictive Amendment to Media Law’, Radio Free Asia, 10 November 2016, Available at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/lao-lawmakers-approve-restrictiveamendment-to-media-law-11102016153123.html 479 Southeast Asian Press Alliance, ‘[Laos] Critical cyberspace shrinks, mainstream press further muted’, 3 May 2017, Available at: https://www.seapa.org/wpfd2017-critical-cyberspace-shrinksmainstream-press-further-muted/ 125