[Taipei, May 28, 2025]– A recent seminar hosted at the National Chengchi University (NCCU) and co-organized by the International Doctoral Program in Asia-Pacific Studies (IDAS), the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (GIDS) course “Democracy and Democratisation in East and South Asia,” ARTICLE 19, and Legal Initiatives for Vietnam (LIV), brought together leading voices from civil society organizations to shed light on the critical challenges to internet freedoms and human rights in the digital space across Asia, with a specific focus on China, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
The event—INTERNET FREEDOM in Viet Nam, China, and Myanmar— was held under the umbrella of the “Engaging Tech for Internet Freedoms” initiative and featured presentations from three speakers for each country, followed by a Q&A session and lunchboxes for registered attendees. The seminar was a collaborative effort involving regional civil society actors to create an evidence base, enhance civil society capacity in advocacy, and strengthen international resistance against restrictive internet regulations.
The seminar featured presentations from three key speakers, each offering unique perspectives and insights drawn from their work on the ground:
- Trinh Huu Long from Legal Initiatives Vietnam (LIV), presented detailed findings on the human rights implications of foreign technology companies operating within Vietnam.
- Sai Arkar (Sai) from Fortify Rights, shared firsthand experiences and documented the situation of digital operations in Myanmar.
- Aleksandra Bielakowska, Advocacy Manager and Taiwan Chapter President with Reporters Without Borders (RSF), introduced the “Engaging Tech for Internet Freedoms” initiative and its comprehensive reports covering the region.
One of the discussants, Svetlana Zens from Article 19, opened the session by framing the current landscape, noting the diminishing idea of the internet as a free space and the increasing dangers faced by civil society actors, particularly in Asia’s authoritarian regimes. She highlighted the reports stemming from the initiative, which reveal how governments in China, Myanmar, and Vietnam pressure tech companies to censor content, promote propaganda, and facilitate surveillance, often citing national security.
Trinh Huu Long (LIV) opened the event by providing a deep dive into Vietnam’s digital landscape, describing it as a “digital operating regime” that controls information and shapes citizens’ minds through surveillance, repression, manipulation, and censorship. He shared a very recent update: the Vietnamese government’s order to block Telegram due to its non-compliance with requests for user data and content moderation, justified under combating crime and national security. Long traced the evolution from a period in 2011 when activists freely used platforms like Facebook to organize movements, to the current reality where foreign tech companies, influenced by Vietnam’s sizable market, exhibit high compliance rates (nearly 100% for Google requests) with government demands for content removal, often citing legal documents like Decree 72. He cited concerning examples such as Facebook allegedly maintaining a list of officials immune from public criticism and Netflix censoring movies that deviate from the official historical narrative.
Sai Arkar (Fortify Rights) spoke afterwards and offered a look at digital oppression in Myanmar under the military regime. He shared personal security concerns and the risks faced by citizens for simple online actions. Sai recounted a striking example from 2023 where individuals were arrested and sentenced to prison merely for changing their Facebook profile picture to black in solidarity with victims of an airstrike. He confirmed that major social media platforms, including Meta products (like WhatsApp), Twitter (X), and Instagram, are banned, forcing users to rely on VPNs, the use of which can also lead to arrest. Checkpoints where soldiers inspect phones for “defaming the military” or images of resistance were highlighted as a clear demonstration of ubiquitous digital surveillance and repression.
Aleksandra Bielakowska (RSF) concluded the presentations. Specifically addressing China, she described a severe deterioration of press freedom and internet freedoms since 2012, led by systematic censorship, surveillance, and harassment. She detailed the sophistication of the “Great Firewall,” the ban on unauthorized VPNs, mandatory real-name registration, and the regulation of popular self-media accounts. She also touched upon the use of advanced technologies like AI and troll bots to suppress politically sensitive content and harass independent voices.
Despite this, she underscored the resilience and creative resistance strategies employed by citizens and grassroots organizations in China, including the use of illegal VPNs, leveraging platforms like Twitter/X for uncensored reporting, employing creative keywords and homophones (like “rice bunny” for the Me Too movement), and utilizing open-source platforms like GitHub. RSF’s initiatives to counter these challenges were also presented, such as the Circle 19 project promoting the right to information, providing access to historical investigative reports, compiling a list of independent media outlets, developing mirror links to bypass the Great Firewall without VPNs, and offering secure VPNs and digital safety resources to journalists and activists.
The seminar effectively underscored the sophisticated methods employed by authoritarian states in Asia to control the digital space and suppress human rights, while also showcasing the crucial work of civil society in documenting abuses, advocating for change, and developing innovative strategies for resistance and access to information.
Legal Initiatives for Vietnam expresses their sincere gratitude to all participants and speakers for sharing their valuable time and knowledge.