Digital Safety and Internet Freedom Report in South and Southeast Asia launched

काठमाडौं ।

A report that assesses the status of digital safety and internet freedom in South and Southeast Asia, including Nepal, was launched today at RightsCon, an international summit on human rights in the digital
age.

‘Through the Looking Glass: Digital Safety and Internet Freedom in South and Southeast Asia’ is  report of the regional study carried out by EngageMedia in partnership with the Oxen Privacy Tech
Foundation (OPTF).

The report synthesizes the findings from country reports submitted by six different countries, including Nepal on digital safety and internet freedom status. Digital Rights Nepal (DRN) had carried out the Nepal country study for this report.

The report was launched via the Rightscon Platform on an event titled Unpacking the State of Digital Safety and Internet Freedom in the Asia-Pacific region. Speaking at the event Mr. Santosh Sigdel, Chair
of Digital Rights Nepal presented the report’s findings from Nepal’s side. He highlighted the significant skill and knowledge gap about digital safety among human rights defenders (HRDs) and at-risk
communities; negative impact of the online harassment and hate speech on HRDs; lack of laws and policies that protect HRDs from digital attacks; and lack of adequate policies and interest of
telecommunications companies to protect subscribers rights in telecommunications.

He further stressed that the digital attacks against Nepalese women journalists and the LGBTIQ+ community have put them in jeopardy.

The report also provided some recommendations in order to strengthen digital safety capacity, address internet freedom issues and to improve policies of telecommunications companies, such as conducting raining programs with practical strategies, avoiding use of generic digital safety programs that have not been customized to fit the local context, investing more time and effort in understanding the needs of t-risk communities and designing digital safety program curricula that address those needs, forming coalitions with the private sector, and conducting campaigns to educate and improve awareness among parliamentarians and government officials about the negative consequences of blocking internet services and so on.

We believe that the report will be able to inform the stakeholders on the digital rights situation in Nepal as well as aid in strengthening and improving the digital safety and internet freedom status in Nepal.