Exploring the Nexus between Technologies
and Human Rights
30
Areas of work
As a comprehensive account of areas of work on digital rights would require a mapping
exercise that goes beyond the scope of this study, this chapter provides some broad
strokes of trends and observations gathered from the FGDs, which future work can
build on. From the FGDs, there is agreement that the Southeast Asian civil society focus
mostly on online freedoms of expression and information; somewhat due to reactions
of civil society towards the encroachment of draconian laws into digital spaces. Media
freedom organisations are equipped to deal with these issues, together with the existing
clout of civil society championing for civil freedom issues. Another area that has been
well-covered is online safety in the way of gender-based violence online, cyber-bullying
and trolling, or digital security training for human rights defenders and marginalised
communities. These issues tend to have a larger buy-in from the concerned publics
because the narrative is clear cut and builds on legacy problems of the past. Other issues
that have generated discussions within civil society include data collection and retention,
due to massive data breaches; digital surveillance is an issue of concern but most point out
that stories of surveillance are mainly anecdotal and based on hearsay, with no substantial
evidence to base advocacy on. However, these discussions have not moved beyond civil
society into mainstream public awareness.
Access to the Internet, as one of the earlier issues in terms of ICT for development,
seems to have fallen out of favour when it comes to advocacy work, possibly due to a
shift in funding priorities, but also because governments have taken over the responsibility
to connect their citizens to the Internet. Some consumer groups had been working
on quality of service and affordability in the past, as well as the free and open source
software movement which sought to promote access to non-proprietary software, but
these groups are not as active anymore within the region, or are disconnected with civil
society that is more political. Overall, it seems that the discussion has shifted beyond
basic access, to include issues, such as clear language in informed consent, digital literacy,
and web standards for accessibility for people with disabilities.
In terms of issues of concern that are not addressed enough, technical attacks on civil
society rank highly. These technical attacks come in the form of Distributed Denial
of Service (DDoS) attacks, interception of data through fake cellphone towers (IMSIcatchers such as Stingray), supply chain attacks, and so on. Artificial intelligence and
other ways of manipulating big data are also considered difficult and are scarcely
discussed, when there are other immediate concerns that violate digital rights. In general,
digital rights advocates find it difficult to advance in issues that are shrouded in state or
corporate secrecy, such as surveillance, biometrics and national identification systems,
organised astroturfing, arbitrary website or account take downs, and so on.
In terms of strategies employed for advocacy work, a wide range was mentioned,
from policy advocacy to capacity building. All of the focus groups at the national level