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Technical Report
Breaking digital walls : aligning online platform regulation across the EU and ASEAN
Digital platforms have reshaped the way in which societies operate, from communications and commerce to the conduct of democratic processes. These powers have remained largely untamed, raising questions about responsibility and accountability. The concerns...
In January 2025, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the halt of third-party fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram, framing it as resistance to Europe’s alleged “laws institutionalizing censorship.” The European Union swiftly rejected these claims, clarifying that regulations like the Digital Services Act promote accountability and transparency, not censorship. Yet, Zuckerberg’s vocal advocacy for free speech in democratic contexts is in stark contrast to Meta’s quiet compliance with content restrictions in Southeast Asia. Home to over 400 million internet users and four of Facebook’s top-ten global markets – Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand – the region epitomizes this troubling double standard. Here, Meta consistently moderates political content and yields to broad state demands, effectively enabling more government control.
If left unchecked, this paradox risks becoming a blueprint for digital repression globally. This policy brief unpacks this dynamic by chronicling Meta’s pattern of compliance in Southeast Asia, assessing existing governance frameworks, recommending targeted ASEAN responses, and advocating robust ASEAN–EU cooperation to effectively close these critical governance gaps. Ultimately, addressing this paradox requires ASEAN urgently to adopt digital platforms governance framework with robust transparency and human rights standards, supported through deeper inter-regional alignment with the EU.