Since 02/2023: Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies
01/2022-01/2023: Associate at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies
01/2021-12/2021: Visiting Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies
03/2019-03/2020: Associate at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies
09/2018-02/2019: Visiting Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies
2017-2018: Visiting Faculty, Department of Political Science, Presidency University, India
2014-2016: Visiting Faculty, Department of Political Science, Diamond Harbour Women's University, India
2014-2015: Visiting Faculty, Department of Mass Communications and Journalism, NSHM Knowledge Campus, India
Education: Ph.D in International Relations (Jadavpur University, India); M.A. in International Relations (Jadavpur University, India), and B.A. in Political Science (Hon.) (St. Xavier's College, University of Calcutta, India)
Anti-fake news lawfare is deepening government control over civil society, undermining information integrity and civil society’s democratic rights. Patterns to this legal repression and related pushback strategies in South and Southeast Asia are examined, as the forerunners of global developments.
Through digitalisation and artificial intelligence, the Indian government is expanding surveillance of its citizens, increasingly threatening their privacy. Visiting Fellow Dr Sangeeta Mahapatra analyses India's digital surveillance strategy in GIGA Focus Asia 05/2021.
Governments in autocratic and autocratizing contexts may use anti-fake news laws to discredit critical civil society actors as agents of “disinformation” and punish them. Through comparative and cross-learning insights derived from field studies, we seek to map civil society responses against the autocratic use of disinformation laws and strengthen policies for right to information and freedom of speech and expression. NED, 2023-2025
In an age of proliferating disinformation, governments in South and Southeast Asia have come out with anti-fake news laws. However, the “weaponization" of such laws can lead governments to control online platforms and censor critics. Our project examines the patterns and processes of the weaponization of such laws against civic actors and countermeasures by the latter. We aim for academic and policy outcomes to improve disinformation regulation while safeguarding digital rights. GIGA, 2023-2024
As democracies are getting increasingly digitalized, digital surveillance can impact the freedom of the press and of speech and expression. Surveillance may also shape the creation and flow of information and the formation of public opinion. This project examines how surveillance affects a major information agent: journalists. Mozilla Foundation, 2021-2022
The interview addresses the need for institutionalisation and standardisation of best parctices of privacy safeguards as digital surveillance through the use of CCTV cameras in schools in New Delhi, India, get routinised.
Organiser: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning
Dr. Sangeeta Mahapatra (Speaker)
The talk explores the integration of AI into learning environments to identify and mitigate algorithmic biases for inclusive and equitable AI governance in knowledge generation.