ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship
As we have just discussed, efforts to limit freedom
of expression and control the flow of information
online can be witnessed through instances of
censorship of online content, strong hold over
Disorders involving the Media in ASEAN
Attacks on On-Duty Journalists
(Indonesia,
Myanmar, The Philippines,
REGIONAL
and Thailand)
tech companies by passing restrictive legislation
to
control
them,
and
internet
250
shutdowns.
Often framed as accidental or due to technical
193
200
difficulties, governments and other actors often
have an intentional, direct hand in creating these
equally complicit BigTech companies, which often
comply with removal requests sent by governments.
By complying with these requests, tech companies
are complicit in the continuing infringement of
freedom of speech and information. For example,
150
Nbof
ofIncidents
Events
Nb
interferences. Governments also collude with
100
48
50
Meta received 772 requests for government
restrictions in Indonesia in 2020, 1009 in 2021,
9
0
and 1475 mid-2022. Of these 1475 requests, 1458
restrictions were actually put in place.6 As such,
they should be held accountable for their roles in
81
79
2020
20
9
2021
2022
5
2023
Year
TOTAL
401
43
obstructing freedom of expression in Southeast
Asia.
Aside from creating unsuitable legal frameworks,
several countries in the region have been suspected
of using spyware to surveil, monitor and punish
pro-democracy activists, human rights defenders,
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), Disorder Involving the
Media, (10 February 2024), available at: https://acleddata.com/data-export-tool/
LEGEND
Disorders involving the Media
Disorders involving Fatalities
Fig. C: Disorders involving the Media in ASEAN (Indonesia,
Myanmar, The Philippines, and Thailand), 2020-2023.
journalists, academics, and so on. The cases
of Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia
highlight how far authoritarian actors are willing to
go in order to maintain legitimacy, going as far as
using advanced information technology to police
its citizens, claiming that this is all necessary in
The information used to construct this infographic is sourced from the
ACLED database, specifically the dataset titled “Disorders involving Media.”
Within this database, we have exclusively selected relevant countries from
the ASEAN region, namely Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
The events were further filtered based on an additional criterion: date. As our
report focuses on events from 2020 to 2023, only those occurring between
January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2023, have been included
the name of “national security.”
More precisely, Myanmar uses Cognyte software,
Thailand relies on Pegasus, Indonesia uses Cytrox
and Circles Technology, while Malaysia also relies
overexertion of police power to silence dissent and
cover their abuses against journalists. Southeast
Asia is known for having very powerful corrupt
on Circles technology.
and powerful law enforcement entities, resulting
Even in cases where spyware is not used, a common
Asian armed forces by the United States and other
tactic seen among Southeast Asian countries is the
geopolitical stakeholders.
from Cold War-era militarization of Southeast
6.Facebook Transparency Report, Content restrictions, (n.d.), available at: https://www.transparency. fb.com/data/content-restrictions/
country/ID/.
Executive Summary: A Regional Overview
15