Sean Tan
17 March 2022
SYNOPSIS
Influence-for-hire operations are spreading in the region while commercial agents are taking on an ever more prominent role both domestically and internationally. They not only help to obscure clients’ motives but also make such operations more accessible to an even broader set of threat actors.
COMMENTARY
THE RISE OF influence-for-hire ─ the buying and selling of influence online ─ has wide-reaching implications for the global disinformation economy, particularly in Southeast Asia. Anti-misinformation actions taken across Southeast Asia are predominantly designed with the objective to prevent the spread of online falsehoods in mind, in line with broader principles of political accountability.
In the Philippines for example, an ‘Anti-False Content Bill’, outlining penalties for the spread of misinformation on online and social platforms, was introduced in the Senate in 2019. In Singapore, the government has introduced the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) also in 2019. However, a recent contribution to an Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report reveals significantly more complexities with regard to accountability in the region than policymakers perhaps assume.
Read the rest at https://www.rsis.edu.sg/rsis-publication/cens/influence-for-hire-southeast-asias-shadow-economy
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