Capacity-Building Workshop on Anti-Fake News Lawfare, Penang, Malaysia, 23 May 2024

Indonesia’s government strives to confine civic spaces with the help of surveillance, Internet shutdowns, digital attacks, lawfare, as well as online manipulation by so-called buzzers. This is alarming because right-wing populist Prabowo Subianto could win the presidency in 2024.

Anti-fake news lawfare is deepening government control over civil society, undermining information integrity and civil society’s democratic rights. Patterns to this legal repression and related pushback strategies in South and Southeast Asia are examined, as the forerunners of global developments.

Brainstorming Workshop on ‘Anti-Fake News Laws in South and Southeast Asia’, Bali PD Dr. Andreas Ufen (Chair), Dr. Sangeeta Mahapatra (Chair), Dr. Janjira Sombatpoonsiri (Chair)

GIGA researchers along with local partner SAFEnet in Indonesia conducted an international knowledge-sharing and capacity-building workshop in Bali, on ‘Strengthening Civil Society Against Disinformation and the Weaponized Use of Anti-Fake News Laws’ from 25-26 September 2023.

Weaponising Fake News Laws, GIGA Berlin Büro, and online event, Berlin Organisers: German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) PD Dr. Andreas Ufen (Consultant)

This talk presents the latest findings from our research on governments’ use of fake news laws as a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) tactic. This trend has accompanied autocratisation in places such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Thailand. In these countries, governments have ridden the global wave of countering disinformation, exploiting existing information laws or passing new ones to censor and criminalise civil society while seeking to control the flow of information digitally. Together with other draconian laws and tools of digital repression such as surveillance and online smear campaigns, fake news laws increase the costs of public participation that could help keep the executive in check. Facing multiple charges, dissidents and journalists are compelled to fight endless court cases, depleting their energy and limited financial resources as well as being a time sink, further to enduring the detrimental psychological effects of this misuse of legal powers. This talk unpacks these mechanisms and proposes counter-responses to weaponising fake news laws.

The interactive sessions of this workshop focused on knowledge sharing, discussions on cross-regional trends and collaboration, and strategies for countering anti-fake news lawfare.

Indonesia’s government strives to confine civic spaces with the help of surveillance, Internet shutdowns, digital attacks, lawfare, as well as online manipulation by so-called buzzers. This is alarming because right-wing populist Prabowo Subianto could win the presidency in 2024.

Anti-fake news lawfare is deepening government control over civil society, undermining information integrity and civil society’s democratic rights. Patterns to this legal repression and related pushback strategies in South and Southeast Asia are examined, as the forerunners of global developments.