Image c/o University of Sydney

Note: This event will take place on 8/27 at 2:15 PM AEST (Sydney time).

Social media has brought both opportunities and challenges to human rights organizations. On the one hand, it provides a free platform for mobilizing support, raising awareness for human rights causes, and increasing public engagement. On the other, social media can give rise to harmful content against these organizations.

This talk by Dr. Aim Sinpeng examines how three major human rights organizations in the Philippines manage their social media campaigns and deal with the rise of online harassment. Based on the analysis from an original dataset of all Facebook comments and posts and semi-structured interviews from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Amnesty International Philippines and Human Rights Watch Philippines between 2016 to 2019, she finds that the online harassment against these organizations has increased significantly under the Duterte Administration. The majority of hateful content against these organizations was from Duterte supporters. However, the CHR continues to receive significant support from the online grassroots to counter online hate, which AI and HRW did not. These findings suggest that human rights organizations can continue to thrive on social media if they can mobilize their supporters to defend their cause online.

Dr. Aim Sinpeng is a Brown Fellow and an award-winning educator whose research interests center on the relationships between digital media and political participation in Southeast Asia. Her book, “Opposing Democracy in the Digital Age: the Yellow Shirts in Thailand” is forthcoming with the University of Michigan Press. She is the co-founder of the Sydney Cyber Security Network and a Thailand country coordinator for the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre.

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