Curtailing Free Expression, Opinion and Information Online in Southeast Asia Executive Summary The internet is the world’s most powerful medium of communication. For most of the world’s population, it is a significant means of exercising the rights to freedom of expression, opinion and information, and for participating in public life. The internet can, however, serve as a double-edged sword. People now enjoy unprecedented access to information. At the same time, the spread of hate speech, incitement to violence, disinformation or propaganda and risks of cyber-attacks on State and other organizational infrastructure pose threats not only to the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, opinion and information, but also to privacy, religious freedom and belief, and public participation, among other rights. These challenges demand genuine law and policy responses. In Southeast Asia, however, legislation and regulatory action introduced by States ostensibly to address these challenges has instead been used to suppress speech and target critics in violation of human rights law obligations and in a manner that undermines the rule of law. Through analyses of legal frameworks and selected cases throughout the region1, this report maps out a general pattern of abuse across the region, where legal provisions have been implemented in a way that curtails the rights to freedom of expression, opinion and information online. This trend is not new – Southeast Asian governments have, for decades, crafted and enforced the law to curtail expression and information, and have in recent years extended these old patterns of violation to the online sphere. Laws enacted before the internet era – including those prohibiting defamation, lesè majesté, sedition, contempt of court or crimes against the State – have been repurposed or supplemented to censor expression and information online. More recent laws that have been introduced purportedly to regulate information online, control the spread of disinformation, ensure cybersecurity and justify internet shutdowns have been used for the same aims. 1 The information in this report is accurate as of 26 November 2019. 5