South-east Asia adopts divergent views on social media

Subject

The popularity and state scrutiny of social media in South-east Asia.

Significance

The successful introduction of smartphones has facilitated social media's rise in a region often characterised by low-quality landlines and relatively low internet access. The rapid adoption of social media in South-east Asia has also been accompanied by exceptionally aggressive state surveillance of such platforms.

Impacts

• Organised crime groups in the Philippines are likely to use social media to implicate their rivals in Duterte's 'war on drugs'.
• The Thai junta will make the operating environment for social media platforms particularly difficult until at least 2018.
• Rising access to mobile telephony and internet in Myanmar could overhaul election campaigning.