Coconet is a network and platform for digital rights movement building in the Asia-Pacific. Its online hub is Coconet.social, where the partners and members of the Coconet community produce and publish content on digital rights awareness, advocacy, and activism. This website also houses resources and blogs on digital rights, artificial intelligence, disinformation, and other issues related to digital rights movements in the region and around the world. (For Coconet.social’s editorial policy, see this page.)
Coconet.social was formally launched in November 2019 at the heels of the second Coconet digital rights camp organised by EngageMedia and the Association for Progressive Communications, both of which are also the co-convenors of the Coconet network.
Stay tuned for more updates and opportunities to learn about and participate in the Asia-Pacific digital rights movement.
Why we need digital rights movements
The Internet is the primary place for democratic discussion and dissent in the Asia-Pacific. But civic spaces in the region are rapidly shrinking. The online environment is skewed towards the needs of governments and business, often at the expense of human rights and democratic freedoms. Governments are engaging in censorship, surveillance, and attacks on online freedom of expression, including filtering content, creation of disinformation, and the arrest and detention of journalists.
Coconet, together with civil society partners in the Asia-Pacific and around the world, recognises the need to strengthen and mainstream digital rights in the region. Civil society must be equipped with the tools and knowledge to ensure digital safety and security – among other digital rights issues – allowing changemakers to more freely and effectively do advocacy and activism.
