Is social media driving a trend towards authoritarianism in Southeast Asia? How are influence operations on social media organised, and what can civil society to do resist such campaigns? This panel brings together three scholars to discuss the deepening entanglement between social media platforms and authoritarian consolidation across Southeast Asia.

Drawing on fieldwork and comparative research from Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, the speakers explore how governments and political elites have learned to weaponize the very platforms once celebrated as tools of democratic opening.

Speakers

Janjira Sombatpoonsiri (German Institute for Global and Area Studies, and Chulangkorn University) discusses her new book A thousand cuts on digital repressession in Thailand. This book examines how the Thai government is stiffling dissent by merging “traditional” methods of repression with digital tools.

Mai Van Tran’s (Northern Illinois University) research focuses on resistance: how activists, journalists, and civil society organizations are resisting shrinking online space and digital repression, and where these efforts fall short.

Kris Ruijgrok (University of Amsterdam) discusses the results of a KITLV research program on the infrastructure of influence operations, detailing the character of the ‘cybertroop’ networks engaged in the manipulation of public opinion through social media.

Moderator

Ward Berenschot is a professor of comparative political anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and a senior researcher at KITLV.

Lecture series Current dynamics in Southeast Asia

This panel is part of the lecture series Current dynamics in Southeast Asia, organised in collaboration with CERI/Sciences Po, CASE/Inalco, Lund University and the ASEAN-China Norms research network.

Format, date, time & venue

This seminar is a hybrid event and will be held in the conference room of KITLV, Herta Mohr building, room 1.30, Witte Singel 27 A, Leiden and online via Zoom, on Thursday 28 May from 15.30 – 17.00 PM (CET).

Flyer

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