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Australia adopted a range of technology based responses to address the COVID-19 pandemic, but this approach resulted in “solutions” that ranged from the outright ineffective to the actively punitive.

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 a system they do not fully understand.

The Zalo Connect app in Vietnam connects users in need with private donors. But in doing so, it exemplifies a humanitarian trend that centres on extracting data from vulnerable communities as a precondition to receiving aid, protection, and justice.

The Sri Lankan government has capitalised on the COVID-19 pandemic to further its authoritarian agenda, using digital technologies to reinforce a climate of fear and censorship.

In Indonesia, the PeduliLindungi app has become synonymous with and inseparable from the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet it poses an unprecedented threat due to a number of factors, all while leaving citizens with little to no recourse to protect their data.

In this 10-part series, EngageMedia and CommonEdge have invited 10 changemakers to respond to the current "pandemic of control" in the Asia-Pacific, amid growing digital authoritarianism that has only accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a new digital authoritarianism has taken hold amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a great necessity to re-invigorate human rights and civil liberties. Addressing this will be EngageMedia's key focus in 2022, through our various projects on digital rights, open and secure technology, and Video for Change.

EngageMedia, in partnership with CommonEdge, is calling for contributions to a series exploring how the response to COVID-19 has accelerated digital authoritarianism in the Asia-Pacific. The selected contributions will first be published on EngageMedia.org, and later in a digital compilation. Accepted contributors will be paid a USD 300 honorarium.