The COVID-19 pandemic normalised digital authoritarianism in Singapore and shaped the city-state’s attitude and mindset towards state surveillance, writes James Gomez, Regional Director at the Asia Centre.
Since July 2020, the independent news organisation New Naratif has been under attack by the Singaporean government in for allegedly breaking the Parliamentary Elections Act by boosting elections-related Facebook posts containing during the previous Singaporean election. New Naratif has stated that, “the Prime Minister’s Office is abusing the law to attack us as part of a long-standing campaign of intimidation and harassment”.
Digital identification, or digital IDs, have become more common in Asia, with some countries even mandating its use for their citizens. Ho Ming-hsuan writes about the digital ID experiences of Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea – and lists various issues that need to be tackled before digital IDs can be adopted more thoroughly in the region.
