The Digital Rights in the Asia-Pacific (DRAPAC) Assembly

Taiwan, 18-19 August 2024 – INITIATE.MY participated in the Digital Rights in the Asia-Pacific (DRAPAC) Assembly, held in Taipei, Taiwan, from August 18-19, 2024. EngageMedia organised the event that brought together civil society organisations, journalists, activists, and technology experts to address the growing challenges to digital rights in the Asia-Pacific region. Shaik Irfan, Programme Associate, and Hari Shankar, Data Analyst at INITIATE.MY participated in this assembly.

The two-day assembly featured plenary sessions, hands-on workshops, digital security labs, and networking opportunities aimed at strengthening alliances and building collective strategies to tackle digital threats.

The assembly highlighted a few important points:

• The growing influence of technology on elections, with governments in countries like Cambodia and Bangladesh exploiting social media to control narratives and suppress political dissents. This trend underscores the abuse of digital tools for political control.
• There were discussions on the increase in cyberattacks across ASEAN nations, alongside concerns about the misuse of mass surveillance under the pretext of national security.
• The importance of media literacy to combat misinformation, particularly during election periods. There were also calls for stronger data protection and privacy laws to safeguard individuals’ rights.
• The team engaged with organisations like What to Fix to understand how social media platforms profit from misinformation. They also explored models like iMAP for monitoring internet censorship.

DRAPAC24 broadened INITIATE.MY’s understanding of digital governance across the Asia-Pacific, equipping the team to better safeguard digital rights, especially in regions with restrictive freedom of expression. The event provided practical tools for integrating digital rights into efforts to counter the abuse of technology in online hate and violent extremism.

As Malaysia moves into the implementation phase of the Action Plan on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (MyPCVE), building strong cross-sector partnerships—including collaboration with tech companies—will be essential to creating open and resilient digital communities across Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific region.