EngageMedia is a nonprofit that promotes digital rights, open and secure technology, and social issue documentary. Combining video, technology, knowledge, and networks, we support Asia-Pacific and global changemakers advocating for human rights, democracy, and the environment. In collaboration with diverse networks and communities, we defend and advance digital rights.
We envision a world where human rights, democracy, and the environment are respected by Asia-Pacific businesses and governments — where civil society meaningfully participates in meeting social and environmental challenges.
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Latest posts by EngageMedia
Policing the pandemic: Australia’s technology response to COVID-19
Australian governments approached the use of digital technologies from an ideological perspective, heavily leaning on control and surveillance.
Towards digital authoritarianism in Nepal: Surveillance, data collection, and online repression
Nepal government’s COVID-19 response opened the door to various threats to human and digital rights. Nepal must decide on its own path if it envisions a democratic digital ecosystem.
Disruptive technologies, demagogic governance: Data (un)democracy in India during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic not only resulted in a great loss of life in India, but also provided an impetus for authoritarian control.
Digital authoritarianism in Bangladesh: Weaponising a draconian law to silence dissent in the pandemic era
The COVID-19 pandemic provided the government with a pretext to censor free speech, harass critics, and effectively curb dissent – accelerating what has been an ongoing turn towards authoritarianism in Bangladesh.
Vietnam’s Zalo Connect app: Digital authoritarianism hidden in peer-to-peer aid platforms
The app connects users in need with private donors. It exemplifies a humanitarian trend that centres on extracting data from vulnerable communities as a precondition to receiving aid.
Indonesia's Covid tracker app PeduliLindungi: To care for and protect?
As PeduliLindungi and the government continue to fumble in its operations, one needs to ask: Is PeduliLindungi really caring for and protecting the Indonesian public?
How the economically marginalised navigate digital adoption in India amid the pandemic
COVID-19 drove the shift to digital services in India, but this has left informal workers struggling to access basic services and protect their personal data within an incomprehensible system.
In Sri Lanka, state-sponsored disinformation and suppression of dissent taint COVID-19 response
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sri Lankan government has used the digital space to further an authoritarian agenda, affecting the digital rights and freedoms of citizens.
Philippines’s SIM Card Registration Act undermines privacy, online expression
The law puts vulnerable groups “at risk of tracking and targeting, increasing the chances of their private information being misused."
Films on human rights abuses and courageous opposition in Myanmar
EngageMedia has curated a playlist of films that shows the extent of rights abuses in the country, as well as courageous forms of resistance against the continuing infringement on rights.
Portraits of a pandemic: Films on the unequal impact of COVID-19 in the Asia-Pacific
“Portraits of a Pandemic” holds space for stories that portray with care and nuance the effects of the COVID-19 crisis in the Asia-Pacific.
Green playlist: Asian short films on protecting the environment
These films feature the struggles of various communities across the Asia-Pacific region as they defend their lands, environment and cultural heritage.
Women leaders discuss campaign for digital rights in Thailand
'...the government must learn to use technology as a tool to create more positive connections with the people on the ground, not using technology to oppress people.'
Biru Terong Initiative: Using the power of video for social change in Indonesia
"We use video to capture the social-economic reality of marginalised groups of society and use that footage to stimulate dialogue and learning."
Silencing the media won't stop the student-led protests in Thailand
"...while protesters rely mainly on media and other forms of communication to mobilize, these organizations have nothing to do with the students’ communication, coordination, and management of the protests."
What's happening in Thailand? Youth activists rally to protect democracy, freedom of speech
An explainer about the ongoing youth-led protests in Thailand.
Thailand's ‘youthquake': Activism in the time of COVID-19
Pro-democracy flash mob protests rocked Thailand in January and February. COVID-19 has shifted acts of resistance to cyberspace.
COVID-19 tune educates, empowers Indonesia’s remote Marapu community
"Let’s just stay at home. Let’s wash our hands diligently to protect our health and lives."
To fight COVID-19 in Myanmar, a call to end the war and internet shutdown in Arakan region
"During the global pandemic, we need to stop the war and internet shutdown to fight COVID-19 in Rakhine."
Fighting the COVID-19 ‘Infodemic’ in the Asia-Pacific
EngageMedia lists some of the media initiatives addressing the COVID-19 "Infodemic' across the Asia-Pacific region
