Mitigating disinformation in Southeast Asia's elections: lessons from Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines

Author(s)/Editor(s): Jonathan Corpus Ong and Ross Tapsell
Publication year: 2020
Publication type: Report
Find this publication at: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence

This report offers a regional assessment of current practices in election-related social media manipulation and interventions with the aim of mitigating future risks in the global context. This report synthesizes original research separately conducted by Ong (Thailand) and Tapsell (Indonesia) as well as collaborative research they conducted for an election integrity intervention in the Philippines. Our research methods are primarily qualitative–drawing from interviews with politicians, campaigners, digital strategists, and journalists–and digital ethnography based on long-term observation of online communities across social media platforms.This report summarises trends of election-related disinformation production from these three Southeast Asian countries to offer insight and comparison for other countries. Their high level of digital activity, robust (sometimes underground) digital economies, and complex histories of political polarisation possibly preview forthcoming global trends.