Fake News and Elections in Southeast Asia

Fake News and Elections in Southeast Asia PDF

Author: James Gomez

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-30

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1000820564

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This book offers a regional analysis of the impact of fake news – misinformation, malinformation and disinformation – on electoral democracy and freedom of expression in Southeast Asia, which has taken place in the middle of a global health pandemic. The book maps the impact of social media and the internet on democracy in the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that have already been in the throes of democratic regression for some time. Including an analysis of countries that do not have national elections, the chapters provide detailed information on the extent of internet and social media penetration in each country, the laws that are deployed to reel in its political potential for critics and demonstrate the impact on democracy or the prospects for democracy. Collectively, contributors note that disinformation is a serious problem in the region that negatively impacts elections and how governments’ attempts to deal with the phenomenon inevitably lead to the targeting of dissenting voices and opposition as anti-state fake news. The deleterious impact on democracy and freedom of expression, facilitated by a citizenry that is prone to manipulation of facts, appears to be the standard modus operandi in the regional authoritarian complex. This book is the first to undertake a regional analysis of disinformation in Southeast Asia and is a significant contribution to the literature on democracy, elections and disinformation. It will be of interest to researchers in the fields of Political Science and Asian Politics, in particular Southeast Asian Politics.

From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation

From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation PDF

Author: Aim Sinpeng

Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute

Published: 2020-10-21

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 981495103X

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This book reflects on the role of social media in the past two decades in Southeast Asia. It traces the emergence of social media discourse in Southeast Asia, and its potential as a “liberation technology” in both democratizing and authoritarian states. It explains the growing decline in internet freedom and increasingly repressive and manipulative use of social media tools by governments, and argues that social media is now an essential platform for control. The contributors detail the increasing role of “disinformation” and “fake news” production in Southeast Asia, and how national governments are creating laws which attempt to address this trend, but which often exacerbate the situation of state control. From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation explores three main questions: How did social media begin as a vibrant space for grassroots activism to becoming a tool for disinformation? Who were the main actors in this transition: governments, citizens or the platforms themselves? Can reformists “reclaim” the digital public sphere? And if so, how?

Pollwatching, Elections and Civil Society in Southeast Asia

Pollwatching, Elections and Civil Society in Southeast Asia PDF

Author: William A. Callahan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-05-08

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1351783092

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This title was first published in 2000: Corruption has become a major issue in East and Southeast Asia since the financial crisis of 1997, leading to widespread political change across the region. But political corruption is not a new issue in Southeast Asia. As Pollwatching, Elections and Civil Society in Southeast Asia shows through in-depth studies of Thailand and the Philippines, political corruption has been a major point of contention within South East Asian countries for decades.

Democracy for Sale

Democracy for Sale PDF

Author: Edward Aspinall

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2019-04-15

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1501732994

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Democracy for Sale is an on-the-ground account of Indonesian democracy, analyzing its election campaigns and behind-the-scenes machinations. Edward Aspinall and Ward Berenschot assess the informal networks and political strategies that shape access to power and privilege in the messy political environment of contemporary Indonesia. In post-Suharto Indonesian politics the exchange of patronage for political support is commonplace. Clientelism, argue the authors, saturates the political system, and in Democracy for Sale they reveal the everyday practices of vote buying, influence peddling, manipulating government programs, and skimming money from government projects. In doing so, Aspinall and Berenschot advance three major arguments. The first argument points toward the role of religion, kinship, and other identities in Indonesian clientelism. The second explains how and why Indonesia's distinctive system of free-wheeling clientelism came into being. And the third argument addresses variation in the patterns and intensity of clientelism. Through these arguments and with comparative leverage from political practices in India and Argentina, Democracy for Sale provides compelling evidence of the importance of informal networks and relationships rather than formal parties and institutions in contemporary Indonesia.

Deepening the Understanding of Social Media’s Impact in Southeast Asia

Deepening the Understanding of Social Media’s Impact in Southeast Asia PDF

Author: Ross Tapsell

Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute

Published: 2020-03-27

Total Pages: 28

ISBN-13: 9814881643

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Southeast Asia’s Internet users are far more diverse than usually reported. They range from the urban youth with laptops and highspeed Wi-Fi, to the older generation semi-rural and rural users with affordable mobile phones for Facebook and WhatsApp. Southeast Asians generally trust social media platforms more than in Western societies. This trust in social media reflects a lack of trust in local mainstream media and official sources of information. What campaign information (and disinformation) is being spread and which ones are most successful are essential for understanding how voters in Southeast Asia use and trust social media. Social media platforms and Southeast Asia’s “app industry” need clearer and enforced regulation on their use of data and the extent to which they can sell data to advertisers. These advertisers include, but are not limited to, politicians and political parties. Since the future of social media usage will likely lie in closed groups, the role of big data analyses that have dominated research on social media over the past ten years, is likely to regress. Instead, ethnographic scholars who can access these groups and engage with their particular interests and identities are more likely to be useful in understanding the digital sphere in the future.

Disinformation and Fake News

Disinformation and Fake News PDF

Author: Shashi Jayakumar

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-10-31

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9811558760

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This book is a collection of chapters penned by practitioners from around the world on the impact that disinformation and fake news has had in both the online and social sphere. While much has been said about individual disinformation campaigns in specific countries, this book offers a panoramic view of how these campaigns are conducted, who they target, and how they are spread. By bringing together research on specific countries and international data mined from questionnaires and online studies, the understanding of the term 'fake news' is greatly expanded and the issues we face are brought to light. The book includes contributions by experts such as Jean-Baptiste Vilmer (Macron Leaks), and includes case studies from Asia, such as Singapore and Myanmar, written in an accessible manner for the general interested reader, practitioners and policymakers in the field.

New Media Political Engagement And Participation in Malaysia

New Media Political Engagement And Participation in Malaysia PDF

Author: Sara Chinnasamy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-28

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1317242696

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This book analyses the exponential growth of independent news portal (INPs) in Malaysia and discusses the extent of impacts generated from these portals in Malaysian electoral conduct especially during Malaysia's 12th and 13th general elections. The mainstream media in Malaysia has for decades been controlled by strict laws such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) and the Sedition Act, as well as self-censorship by print and broadcast journalists and editors. The rise of INP in Malaysia has challenged this government stranglehold, as well as making information available much faster than the mainstream media. The undeniable speed of the news posted on INP which often come with interactive contents are seen to have caused a remarkable increment on public’s options with regards to expressing their political views. Some of the INPs have also impressively taken up a notch by providing live streaming videos or interesting online visual news which indirectly unifies various sectors of pressure groups in providing options of circulating and disseminating information to the public. The interviews conducted for this book provide deeper insights from those producing news and at the same time provide a specific and thorough observation on political events including representatives of the Malaysian middle class, Opposition parties, youth and university students, NGOs and civil society movements. Chinnasamy investigates key questions relating to this shift in relation to media preference concerning on the mainstream and political landscape in Malaysia. Did the INP evolve new democratic movement in the country or induce a change in the way the government retains its power by increasing people's active engagement in political participation? Did any revolution in government-managed media landscape occur drastically? If so, how did they accomplish these changes? This book will fill the gap of existing research on how far have the INP empowered themselves to be the third force in fighting democratic movement in the country and how the ruling government continues seeing it as a contention, as foreseen by many experts in the industry.

Between Consolidation and Crisis

Between Consolidation and Crisis PDF

Author: Aurel Croissant

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13:

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Between Consolidation and Crisis focuses on five countries in Southeast Asia to examine how their elections have been conducted in the past two years, their domestic implications, and how the elections have differed from one another and from elections in other parts of Asia. Case studies on Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand provide an overall understanding of the impact of elections on the consolidation or crisis of new democratic and semi-democratic polities in the region of Southeast Asia.

Media Power in Indonesia

Media Power in Indonesia PDF

Author: Ross Tapsell

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2017-07-18

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1786600374

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h2 style="page-break-after:avoid"Examines the Indonesian media industry in the digital era, examining contemporary ‘battlefields’ between media owners and ordinary citizens.

Hacking the Electorate

Hacking the Electorate PDF

Author: Eitan Hersh

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-06-09

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1107102898

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Hacking the Electorate focuses on the consequences of campaigns using microtargeting databases to mobilize voters in elections. Eitan Hersh shows that most of what campaigns know about voters comes from a core set of public records, and the content of public records varies from state to state. This variation accounts for differences in campaign strategies and voter coalitions across the nation.