Jurisprudence Shaping Digital Rights in Southeast Asia I. OVERVIEW & REFLECTIONS 1. INTRODUCTION Countries in Southeast Asia (SEA) have witnessed rapid growth in both internet penetration and economic growth in the last few years. The digital economy has played a crucial role in the post-pandemic recovery of the region, contributing to accelerating the shift to online activities and substantially changing how people interact, work and access public services. laws and restrictive measures targeting online expression has steadily increased in the region. The Global Expression Report for 2022 published by Article 19, a global civil society organisation, opined that the level of democracy had returned to where it was in 1989, particularly in countries in the region where laws, nationalist rhetoric and stigmatisation are weaponised to silence speech and expression online.2 Another study by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in 2019 demonstrated how governments in Southeast Asia used laws to restrict and control expression online. Further, this report also highlighted the common practice of criminalising expression online by exploiting weak formulation of the text of the law3. A regional study by the Association for Progressive Communication (APC) confirmed the trends in using laws against freedom of expression in Asia, including through exploiting over broad provisions or amending specific laws that previously applied offline, such as counter-terrorism laws, to target online expression.4 Other country-specific studies in Southeast Asia also affirmed this assessment. The indiscriminate use of Lese Majeste in Thailand5 has resulted in further deterioration in the exercise of human rights online. Similar concerns exist in Malaysia as the government continues to enforce the Sedition Act to re- In the background, internet regulations and laws have evolved across Southeast Asia. Before the emergence of Internet-specific laws and regulations, countries regulated the Internet by applying laws and regulations related to telecommunication, information, media, and broadcasting in addition to other penal or civil laws. Internet specific regulations have typically sought to address content online, intermediary liability, and safety standards among other aspects of digital economy and integration. Experts from civil society have consistently raised concerns about these laws being overbroad, vague, and in contradiction with national and international guarantees. Parallelly, many studies in the last few years have warned about the shrinking space for civic participation online, including people’s ability to exercise their rights online. While freedom of expression online has declined; the number of 2 3 4 5 The Global Expression Report: Intensifying battle for narrative control, 2022, Article19, see https://www.article19.org/ wp-content/uploads/2022/06/A19-GxR-Report-22.pdf Dictating the Internet: Curtailing free expression, opinion and information online in Southeast Asia, 2019, ICJ, see https://icj2.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Southeast-Asia-Dictating-the-Internet-PublicationsReports-Thematic-reports-2019-ENG.pdf 2017 Special Issue: Unshackling expression – A study on laws criminalising expression online in Asia, APC, https://www. giswatch.org/2017-special-issue-unshackling-expression-study-laws-criminalising-expression-online-asia Manushya Foundation, et.al,. Joint UPR submission: Digital Rights in Thailand, UN Universal Periodic Review of Thailand -3rd UPR Cycle, November 2021, available at https://uprdoc.ohchr.org/uprweb/downloadfile. aspx?filename=9013&file=EnglishTranslation 7