Opportunities and Challenges in Southeast Asia, 2019 (Bangkok, Thailand) 25 Table 6: Internet and Facebook Penetration in Southeast Asia Population Internet (2019 est) users Brunei Percentage Facebook of Internet users (31 users Dec 2018) out of population Percentage of Facebook users out of population Percentage of Facebook users out of Internet users 439,336 416,798 94.9 % 350,000 79.67% 83.97% Singapore 5,868,104 4,955,614 84.5 % 4,300,000 73.28% 86.77% Thailand 69,306,160 57,000,000 82.2 % 46,000,000 66.37% 80.70% Malaysia 32,454,455 26,009,000 80.1 % 22,000,000 67.79% 84.59% Vietnam 97,429,061 64,000,000 65.7 % 50,000,000 51.32% 78.13% Philippines 108,106,310 67,000,000 62.0 % 62,000,000 57.35% 92.54% 53.2 % 130,000,000 48.23% 90.74% Indonesia Cambodia Laos Myanmar TimorLeste Regionwide 269,536,482 143,260,000 16,482,646 8,005,551 48.6 % 6,300,000 38.22% 78.70% 7,064,242 2,500,000 35.4 % 2,200,000 31.14% 88.00% 54,336,138 18,000,000 33.1 % 16,000,000 29.45% 88.89% 1,352,360 410,000 30.3 % 390,000 28.84% 95.12% 662,375,294 391,556,963 59.11% 339540000 51.26% 86.72% Source: Internet World Stats, 201912 It can be seen in Table 6 that most of the Internet users in Southeast Asia are connected to Facebook. One observation that arose from a respondent was that social media was a main pull factor for much of Southeast Asia’s population to connect to the Internet. According to the respondent, prior to the rise of social media, most of the digital rights work focused on information and communication technologies (ICT) for development (ICT4D), which is to see ICT as a public good, and champion issues along the lines of Internet access, digital economy, distance learning, etc. With the mass adoption of Internet connectivity and increased participation of the public and private sectors, the narrative of digital rights and funding priorities within civil society shifted towards a rights-based framework. It is true that most of the discussions in the focus groups did not zero into Internet access, even if the data shows that there is still much room for improvement in connecting the 12 https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm