ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship W e have entrusted our coalition members to on Laos (Chapter IV, 3. Lao PDR), where egregious write thorough country-specific analyses, human rights breaches instances prior to 2020 are based on their expertise in the digital rights also included. We focused our inquiries on different landscapes of their respective countries. It must target areas, which were ultimately synthesised into thus also be noted that as these coalition members primary themes featured in the reports in this series: are specialists in their own rights, with a wealth of criminalisation of defamation and lack of human- information obtained through lived experiences centred cyber laws and policies; online monitoring and field research, not every source will be cited, and content moderation; threats to privacy and data as a lot of information was first-handedly provided protection; harassment of activists and human rights by the author and not obtained from elsewhere. defenders (HRDs); and internet shutdowns. Please find a list of the organisations and/or network individuals who were responsible for the writing and reviewing of our different Chapter IV country-specific This report is also composed on the basis of desk research, including a systematic literature review subchapters in Fig. X (p.6 ). of relevant legislation and regulations; reports, We included voices from the ground and experts’ mechanisms and NGOs; online news articles; policy insight from panel discussions, including sessions and white papers; and independent publications. we held as part of RightsCon, such as the 2022 Data was also obtained from studies and external “Thailand: Digital Authoritarianism Rising” session, civil society organisations. We carried out interviews the 2021 “Online Freedom Under Attack: Weaponising with a wide range of stakeholders to receive the Misinformation, Disinformation, and ‘Fake News’ for most accurate insight on the state of digital rights Censorship in Southeast Asia” session, as well as on the ground relating to the target areas specified a series of other webinars hosted by the Coalition. above. The study’s ultimate objective is to provide a Participants of the webinars and discussions consisted comprehensive analysis on the state of digital rights of citizens, experts, representatives of academia, and in the Southeast Asia region, including during the civil society groups. For some countries, our Coalition COVID-19 pandemic, by looking at existing national members also conducted independent investigations laws, policies and measures; recorded cases of and compiled data from open sources published violation; as well as previous recommendations or by the relevant authorities, government agencies proposals made in line with international human and the judiciary. The report’s coverage spans the rights laws and standards. studies, and recommendations by UN human rights years 2020 through 2023, except for the chapter Chapter II. Methodology 33