Digital rights in Southeast Asia, where are we now?

Dear Manushyan, Dear Friend,

It has been a long and winding journey in digital rights in Asia-Pacific. We now stand at a precarious time, frightening even. Across Southeast Asia, governments are fast tracking identity verification laws and policies that would tear down anonymity as we know it. For centuries, anonymity has granted activists the ability to challenge those in power, especially if doing so publicly could either mean jail time, enforced disappearance or death.

Most recently, we, at Manushya Foundation, set our eyes on the Philippines and Thailand as both countries have laid out their plans to verify identities on social media. If you would remember, we flagged this possibility as early as August 2024 when the United Nations Cybercrime Treaty was on its way to being adopted by the General Assembly in December of the same year.

The increasing overreach of governments into our private lives operates as dual tools of control. First, they act as a mechanism that monitors, tracks and disciplines people into compliance with the capital. And second, they are ideological tools that normalise further surveillance as necessary and benevolent. What is often left behind in public discussions about surveillance is the latter. Control with consent becomes culture. Done over and over, we will have generations of people who internalise surveillance as the price of participation in modern life. And that is how fascism wins through everyday quiet compliance. 

What is profoundly alarming is the readiness of some civil society actors to entertain legislation that dismantles anonymity under the pretext of combating misinformation and cybercrimes. There has never been a single historical precedent for expansive monitoring powers remaining limited in the scope that was promised. They always metastasise like cancer destroying every living cell in a human body. No amount of guardrails drafted in good faith can withstand authoritarian turns. Once the infrastructure and ideology are there, there is no going back.

We at Manushya Foundation continue to speak out and intervene loudly. Read on below to see highlights of our work in defending Digital Democracy.

In Solidarity,

Manushya Foundation

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Manushya is returning at RightsCon 2026 with a critical session on how the UN Cybersecurity Treaty empowers transnational repression in Southeast Asia. This session will unpack what is at stake, who stands to gain, and why civil society must act before these mechanisms harden into permanent tools of political suppression.

We will be joined by:

• Debbie Stothard (ALTSEAN BURMA)

• Sovathana Seng (CCHR)

• Dr Jean Linis-Dinco (Manushya Foundation)

• Emilie Pradichit (Manushya Foundation)

Stay updated on our RightsCon Session. Follow our social media channels for the confirmed date and time.

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On 14 October 2025, Manushya Foundation intervened in the WSIS+20 discussions in New York to confront the deep contradictions at the core of the so-called ‘people-centred’ digital agenda of the Zero Draft.

If WSIS+20 is serious about justice, it must confront the ownership question at the heart of digital power. Technology must be decommodified, stripped from private control, and repurposed to serve collective liberation, not corporate profit.

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This newsletter only captures part of the story. To read highlights of our Digital Rights critiquing digital identity verification, AI governance, age-gating laws, and the political economy of tech in Southeast Asia:

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