What happens online can have very real consequences offline. For some people, these consequences might seem minor, even though content is easily taken out of context or manipulated. But for human rights activists trying to claim freedom of expression and civic space, the risks are very serious and at times can be fatal. In April 2016, Nazimuddin Samad, a young Bangladeshi law student, who was known for expressing secular views online, was hacked and then shot to death by unknown assailants in Dhaka. Earlier, in 2013, his name had appeared on a hit list of 84 atheist bloggers published by a group of radical Islamists. Several other bloggers on the list had been killed already the year before. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident: in Bangladesh, Asia and the rest of the world, people are being harassed, threatened, arrested or killed for what they say or post online.
Across Asia, governments are realising the power of online spaces and are adopting policies and laws that effectively criminalise online dissent and expression.
Across Asia, governments are realising the power of online spaces and are adopting policies and laws that effectively criminalise online dissent and expression, as Thailand’s new “Computer-Related Crime Act (CCA)” demonstrates. The CCA was adopted on 16 December 2016, and gives broad powers to the government to restrict free speech, enforce surveillance and censorship, and retaliate against activists. For example, Articles 14(1) and (2) of the new law gives the government the ability to prosecute anything they designate as “false” and—in the case of article 14(1)—“distorted” information, vague terms which are easily abused.
