Curtailing Free Expression, Opinion and Information Online in Southeast Asia v. Protection of rights to freedom of expression, opinion and information online The obligation to ensure the protection of human rights law applies not only within a country, but may also apply extraterritorially, and at the very least to all persons within a State’s jurisdiction. International human rights law is therefore generally applicable to cyberspace, because of the ubiquity of cyberspace and the numerous points of jurisdictional contact States will inevitably have across that space. The UN High Commissioner of Human Rights outlined this scope in his 2014 report on the right to privacy in the digital age.52 The international legal standards governing the online sphere has been the subject of ongoing commentary and guidelines promulgated at the international level to ensure protection of the rights to free expression, opinion and information online. Both treaty and non- treaty-based standards have reaffirmed that international law and standards apply both on and offline. In July 2018, the UN Human Rights Council adopted by consensus a resolution (‘UN HRC 2018 resolution’) affirming that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression, which is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of one’s choice, in accordance with articles 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”.53 In November 2016, the African Commission on Humans and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) adopted similar language in its resolution on the Right to Freedom of Information and Expression on the Internet in Africa affirming that human rights principles apply equally online as they do offline.54 This was in line with an unequivocal clarification by the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression in 2011 that: 52 53 54 Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘The right to privacy in the digital age’, A/HRC/27/37, 30 June 2014 (‘A/HRC/27/37’), paras 31 to 36. UN Human Rights Council, ‘The promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet’, 4 July 2018, UN Doc No. A/HRC/38/L.10/Rev.1 (‘A/HRC/38/L.10/Rev.1’), p3; This reiterated the same principle expressed in an earlier 2016 resolution, which had also been adopted by consensus by the UN Human Rights Council. African Commission on Humans and People’s Rights, ‘Resolution on the Right to Freedom of Information and Expression on the Internet in Africa’, ACHPR/Res. 362(LIX) 2016, Available at: https://africaninternetrights.org/updates/2016/12/article-734/ 23