Southeast Asian Civil Society Organizations and Digital Rights in the Age of China’s Digital Silk Road

Abstract: This article analyzes the activities of Southeast Asian civil society organizations (CSOs) with regard to citizens’ online freedom of expression (digital rights) against the backdrop of China’s increasing digital investments in the region through its Digital Silk Road (DSR) concept. CSO behavior relating to citizens’ digital rights contributes to the on-the-ground, agency-driven perspective among countries that are targets of Chinese digital infrastructure investments. This perspective is underrepresented in the literature surrounding China’s contemporary global rise. Focusing specifically on Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines—three countries that rank as “high” recipients of Beijing’s media influence (one form of digital technology influence)—this article sheds light on two phenomena. First, the Southeast Asian CSO landscape currently focuses on pressing issues threatening freedom of expression in national and regional spaces, such as national government surveillance, misinformation campaigns, and internet shutdowns, more so than the “digital Chinese threat.” Second, although pushback against the threats to Southeast Asians’ digital rights often has connections to China’s digital technologies, the reality that digital repression techniques are organized and executed by Southeast Asian governmental regimes (and not by Chinese actors) generates contradictions that run counter to the democratic ideals espoused by these countries and align more closely with the Chinese states’ views relating to information organization and control.