Opinion | Technology reshaped Asia’s protest movements – but can it effect real change?

Technology has reshaped the dynamics of Asia’s anti-government protests and the social movements behind them, as recent events in Hong Kong, Thailand and Myanmar have shown.

Just a decade ago, smartphones and social media were in their infancy as consumer products, yet they had already proven themselves to be powerful organising tools for protesters.

In both the Arab spring protests that swept the Middle East at the start of last decade and 2011’s anti-capitalist Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, activists used social media to publicise their causes and coordinate their actions.

The Hong Kong protests of 2019-2020 showed how technological advances – in the form of near-ubiquitous smartphone ownership and internet connectivity – could allow for a seamless crossover between online and offline campaigns, and provide a platform for dissent to continue in the virtual world even after physical protests had subsided.

When Covid-19 and the National Security Law ultimately put an end to the unrest, an unknown number of protesters fled Hong Kong. Last year, Taiwan issued 10,813 residence permits and 1,576 settlement permits to people from the city, nearly twice the previous year’s numbers – 5,858 and 1,474, respectively – although it is unclear how many recipients were pro-democracy activists.

Still, online platforms have allowed even those in self-exile to continue their activism. On June 4 this year – the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown – an event usually held in Taiwan’s Liberty Plaza to commemorate the tragedy was moved online instead. It featured exiled protesters from Hong Kong, Myanmar, Thailand and Tibet, perhaps suggesting a certain permanence of common cause between the region’s different protest movements.