Digital growth in Southeast Asia is staggering. With the region’s internet penetration rate reaching 53 percent in 2016, it began to outpace the rest of the world, where only one person in two has access to the internet. According to the Digital in 2017: Southeast Asia report, the number of internet users in Southeast Asia also grew by 31 percent, or 80 million people, over 2016 alone. With a total population of 644 million people, Southeast Asia has 854 million mobile subscribers, of whom 305.9 million are active social media users and 272.6 million are active mobile social users.
However, Southeast Asians seem unprepared for the deluge of (mis)information that comes with greater internet access. Nor are governments in the region taking effective steps to secure their citizens’ data privacy and working on laws and regulations that keep up well with technology developments and usage. The proliferation of fake news and hoaxes are already destabilizing national politics throughout Southeast Asia, from inflaming political passions during Jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial election to enabling hate speech and atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar.
This week’s Spotlight focuses on the growing problems that greater digital access poses in Southeast Asia. Indeed, the problem is not with the access itself with people’s and governments’ responses to what gets put on, picked up from, and circulated on the internet and social media. First published in The Jakarta Globe, Johannes Nugroho’s opinion piece warns the authorities of their duty to keep in step with increasingly consequential technology developments. The Indonesian government has been slow to act in response to Facebook’s data harvest allegation or Uber’s retreat from app-based transport services.
Our second Spotlight article highlights the political self-interests motivating a bill against fake news currently under deliberation in the Malaysian parliament. Ambassador Dennis Ignatius argues in its zeal to curb the circulation of fake news in Malaysia, the government risks impairing “what remains of free speech and the right to dissent.” With a general election coming up in Malaysia, it is hard not to suspect the draft bill as yet another means to harass the opposition and critical citizens.
Yet, what is missing from this incipient public discussion about fake news and hoaxes is how citizens can better prepare themselves in sorting the information and news, fake or otherwise, they will come across on the internet and social media platforms. Without the ability to process the deluge of (mis)information, unquestioning Southeast Asians will continue to fall for falsehoods and provocations that dovetail their own prejudices.
