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EngageMedia Digital Rights Project Manager Vino Lucero speaking at the Manila solidarity event, where participants identified priority issues that digital rights advocates expect to face in 2023.
In the Philippines, digital rights advocates continue to face various threats: from the weaponisation of laws to threaten free speech and privacy, to the information disorder manifesting on social media. At the solidarity event in Manila held on Day 3 of the Asia-Pacific Digital Rights Forum last January 14, 2023, participants co-created a digital rights agenda for 2023 and beyond, identifying priority digital rights issues and the resources needed to address these.
EngageMedia, in partnership with Out of the Box Media Literacy Initiative, co-hosted the solidarity event, which was held simultaneously with four other parallel events in Dhaka, Bangkok, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur. Participants are invited to continue the conversations from these in-person events over at Forum.EngageMedia.org/Discuss.
What should be on the list of priorities for a Philippine digital rights agenda? What resources are currently available to share with one another? These are some of the questions participants of the Manila solidarity event sought to answer on Day 3 of the Asia-Pacific Digital Rights Forum.
Revisiting strategies for effective digital rights advocacy
During the event, participants listed some pressing digital rights issues that human and digital rights activists expect to face in 2023. These include online gender-based violence, online disinformation, government surveillance, and the weaponisation of laws such as the cyber libel law, Anti-Terror Law, and the SIM Card Registration Law that restrict free speech and threaten people’s privacy. Aside from these, participants also highlighted other concerns that impact digital rights advocacy, such as the lack of access to technology, limited media literacy among the public, and limited funding for digital security needs.
Participants stressed the need for more support for digital rights campaigns and the work of groups making digital rights issues more accessible to the general public. One way to do this is to ensure that language and cultural contexts are embedded in strategies for promoting digital rights. This could include localizing digital rights resources so these are understandable for the general Filipino audience.
Amid the complexities of these digital rights threats, participants said it was time to rethink and revisit their strategies and find ways for more collaborative solutions to maximise the impact of their work.
“We are always looking for partners”, stressed Monalisa Tabernilla from the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, who shared the government agency’s eLibrary archives containing data on human rights resources and the culture of indigenous people. Other resources shared that could be collaboratively expanded on include the Foundation for Media Alternatives’ guides to online gender-based violence and other digital rights violations, and Human Rights Online Philippines’ archive of laws and media content related to human and digital rights.
