Transgressiveness, civil society and Internet control in Southeast Asia

Over the past decade there is a growing concern about how state governments could exert political control upon the Internet system. Most explanations on Internet control point to the authoritarian nature of political system. It is true that in general Internet control practices are more evident in politically closed regimes and less so in fully liberal democracies. A clear match between the level of democracy and the degree of Internet freedom, however, could hardly be found in the middle of political regime continuum that contains various sorts of hybrid polities. This paper tries to look beyond the regime factor and identify the major determinants that shape Internet control outcomes in competitive (yet not fully democratic) political systems. It chooses to investigate three Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, which constitute a clear mismatch between their regime types and the level of Internet control. Pointing out the indeterminacy of regime type, this paper constructs an alternative model that addresses the intensity of online transgressiveness and the capacity of online civil society. While online transgressiveness propels governments to seek Internet control strategies, online civil society represents an inhibiting force, the cohesiveness of which determines the extent to which societal resistance against Internet censorship might succeed.