Digital Authoritarianism

This podcast series, hosted by Dr. Janjira Sombatpoonsiri, Dr. Sangeeta Mahapatra, and PD Dr. Andreas Ufen, explores insights from the research project Digital Authoritarianism through Lawfare: Mapping and Strengthening Civil Society Responses in Asia.

Episode 4: From Digital Repression to Resistance: Fighting Digital Authoritarianism in Asia

In this episode, Yatun Sastramidjaja examines how digital activism and digital repression evolve in tandem across South and Southeast Asia, and why these two sides are too often studied as separate research agendas. Drawing on research into youth movements from Indonesia's 1998 student uprising onwards, she explores how activists adapt their repertoires and movement infrastructures in response to increasingly insidious forms of repression, from surveillance and cyber troops to information laws that criminalise dissent. The conversation turns to the question of how movements can respond when states hold vastly greater resources. Sastramidjaja argues that activists are starting to realise they cannot win on the state's terms, and asks what happens when they decenter the digital, mobilising in spaces and with causes less easily colonised by the tools of the regime. Concrete examples include workshops at the Digital Rights Asia-Pacific Assembly where card games teach communities how to respond to internet shutdowns and digital violence. The episode closes with a reflection on radical hope and connective spaces: how networked nodes of resistance, virtual and material, sustain the prospect of struggle even under severe repression. Host: Dr. Janjira Sombatpoonsiri, Research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, and an Assistant Professor at Chulalongkorn University Guest: Dr. Y.M. Yatun Sastramidjaja, Associate Professor at Amsterdam University and recipient of the European Research Council Consolidator grant “Activist Techtopias: Crafting Alternate Infrastructures of Resistance in Asia, or AlterTech

Episode 3: AI Censorship & Legal Repression: Journalism’s Role in Democratic Resilience

GIGA researcher Dr. Sangeeta Mahapatra speaks to Alex Mahadevan of the Poynter Institute, Director of MediaWise, about how digital authoritarianism increasingly operates through a dual squeeze on journalism: legal repression and AI-enabled platform enforcement. Drawing on work with small and low-resource newsrooms across South and Southeast Asia, Mahadevan explains how sanctions, regulatory uncertainty, and legal risk can produce chilling effects and self-censorship—and how automated systems can suppress legitimate reporting through downranking, demonetisation, and takedowns, often without clear accountability.

The conversation then turns to democratic resilience: what it takes for journalists and fact-checkers to keep verifying information and maintaining public trust when pressure rises and disinformation scales. Mahadevan discusses what a fair appeals process could look like, and how reporters can use AI responsibly for verification, investigations, and exposing coordinated manipulation—strengthening the information ecosystem that democratic accountability depends on.

Host: Dr. Sangeeta Mahapatra is a Research Fellow at the GIGA and Spokesperson of the Working Group "Democratic Institutions" of the GIGA Research Programme "Accountability and Participation".

Guest: Alex Mahadevan is Director at MediaWise, Poynter Institute

Episode 2: The Role of Generative AI in Digital Authoritarianism

In the second episode of the GIGA podcast series on digital authoritarianism, Prateek Waghre, Head of Programs and Partnerships at the Tech Global Institute and Fellow at Tech Policy Press, examines how generative AI can reinforce existing authoritarian practices. He explores its use in shaping narratives, manipulating information ecosystems, and scaling propaganda. Waghre argues that these authoritarian applications of generative AI significantly heighten the challenges faced by civil society and policymakers, particularly in Global Majority countries, as they seek to regulate online content dominated by Big Tech. He calls for collective advocacy, cross-sector collaboration, and stronger corporate governance standards, emphasizing an ecosystem-level approach to rethinking both state and platform accountability.

Host: Dr. Sangeeta Mahapatra is a Research Fellow at the GIGA and Spokesperson of the Working Group "Democratic Institutions" of the GIGA Research Programme "Accountability and Participation".

Guest: Prateek Waghre is Head of Programs and Partnerships at the Tech Global Institute, and Fellow at the Tech Policy Press.

Episode 1: Illberal Challenges to Disinformation Research

Following recent cuts in U.S. aid and development funding, civil society advocates for digital literacy and digital rights have taken a significant hit. In this first episode of the GIGA podcast series on digital authoritarianism, Jonathan Ong – Professor of Global Digital Media and Director of the Global Technology for Social Justice Lab (GloTech) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst – examines how resource imbalances between the Global North and the Global Majority shape funding for fact-checking organizations and debates on tech accountability. He discusses how reliance on Big Tech and Global North donors creates structural dependencies that can sideline local priorities, undermine media sustainability, and influence what “truth” gets verified. Drawing on his recent Global Majority knowledge exchange project at GloTech, Ong calls for structural change in how civil society coalitions are built and maintained, arguing that more inclusive, bottom-up approaches can unleash the Global Majority’s creative capacity.

Host: Dr. Janjira Sombatpoonsiri is a Research Fellow at the GIGA.

Guest: Prof. Jonathan Corpus Ong is a Professor of Global Digital Media at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.