Opportunities and Challenges in Southeast Asia, 2019 (Bangkok, Thailand) 13 In terms of theoretical contribution, this chapter contributes to theory building through untangling and abstracting distinct viewpoints that form the complex substance of digital rights, each coming with their body of existing work, historical context, and underlying assumptions. There is a widespread perception in the global digital rights community that Western countries are the subject of most digital rights research, and that research areas most compatible to Internet policy concerns of Western governments and corporations receive more funding and research attention (Remensperger, Schwartz-Henderson, & Cendic, 2018). It has also been pointed out that digital rights is differently perceived and defined in non-Western countries, so much so that local societies may resist the agendas of international digital rights organisations, which are mostly based in the West (Daskal, 2018). This chapter, drawing from perspectives of digital rights advocates in Southeast Asia, fills an important void in academic literature, and channels homegrown insights back into advocacy work in the region. This study employs qualitative methodology, engaging digital rights and advocates from Southeast Asia in focus group discussions (FGDs) and interviews. A total of five focus groups were conducted: one for regional activists, one each for country-level activists in the Philippines and Thailand, and two for Malaysia2. One supplementary interview was held with a respondent with a regional perspective. The countries were chosen based on two factors: the level of activity in digital rights work and the ease of gaining access to the field, as most of the researcher’s contacts of digital rights advocates were based in these three countries. Only three countries were chosen to represent national perspectives in Southeast Asia due to resource limitations in conducting fieldwork. As displayed in Table 1, there was a total of 24 respondents. Data collection was performed in July 2019 in Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok. The focus groups were facilitated by the researcher and audio-recorded. Respondents were informed of their rights as research subjects through an informed consent form. Table 1: Details of Data Collection Data collection sessions Location No. of Respondents Regional focus group Manila 5 Philippine focus group Manila 7 Malaysian focus group #1 Kuala Lumpur 2 Malaysian focus group #2 Kuala Lumpur 4 Thai focus group Bangkok 5 Supplementary interviews Bangkok 1 (regional) Total number of respondents 2 24 A second focus group was held to accommodate those who cancelled for the first.