Joint Statement: Singapore’s targeting of Han Hui Hui is a clear act of digital repression, says Southeast Asian Civil Society Network
Jakarta (11 August 2025) – We, the civil society organisations members of ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship and South East Asia Collaborative Policy Network (SEA CPN), unequivocally condemn the escalating digital repression on woman human rights defender Han Hui Hui by the Singaporean government. Han is currently enduring a multifaceted harassment, including judicial harassment, threats of device seizure by police, and the risk of over moderation by social media platforms.
Han is a former Human Rights Fellow at the University of York, UK, and has a long-standing history of activism in Singapore. She has actively used her blog and social media accounts to raise public awareness about human rights issues in Singapore, including topics such as public housing, healthcare, decent living standards, and children’s rights. She has also organised various public education initiatives to promote freedom of expression.
Since 2013, Han has been subjected to sustained and relentless harassment by the Singaporean government in response to her digital activism. This began with defamation threats over a blog post written during her time as a student, and has since escalated into a decade-long pattern of legal persecution leading to financial penalties, surveillance and content takedowns. She has faced prolonged court trials, fines, both personal and for individuals she had never met, state intimidation of her family, repeated threats of imprisonment for up to 18 years, and crippling financial burdens.
During the 2025 Singapore General Elections, Han ran as an independent candidate under the People’s Alliance. As part of her campaign, she conducted house visits to engage directly with constituents. On 6 July 2025, Han and her team encountered a household occupied by a strong supporter of the ruling party. The female resident called the police, accusing Han’s team of trespassing despite the corridor where she stood was a public space. She further alleged that Han had take footage of her house.
Han Hui Hui documented the encounter and livestreamed the incident on Facebook, showing the intimidation she received. Although the police found no evidence of the alleged house footage, they have continued to pursue the case under the pretext of a trespassing case and attempted to seize her digital devices.
The ongoing harassment of Han Hui Hui is not an isolated incident. In 2017, Teo Soh Lung was pressured to sign a document admitting guilt in order to retrieve her devices. Once returned, the device was severely damaged, causing her significant financial losses and the destruction of critical data. Now, the Singaporean Government tried to do the same thing with Han.
In addition to state-led repression, Hanis also being silenced by social media companies through overmoderation. Her video documenting the incident was flagged as ‘sensitive’ on TikTok, rendering it invisible to users without accounts. On YouTube, the same video is currently under review and at risk of being removed following mass reporting under alleged privacy violations–a tactic often used to silence political content.
The Singapore government’s treatment of Han Hui Hui is a textbook example of digital repression. Livestreaming political activities is not a crime, but an act of public accountability. It is a form of political expression that falls squarely within the realm of democratic participation. Seizing her devices and targeting her online activity is a form of digital authoritarianism dressed as legitimate law enforcement. Singapore has refused to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), further insulating itself from international human rights obligations.
Singapore must demonstrate its commitment as a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, both of which recognise freedom of expression and privacy as fundamental rights. In 2021, during the Third Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review, Singapore pledged to align its laws and policies with international human rights standards, including those related to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association. They were explicit commitments Singapore chose to support.
The ongoing targeting of Han Hui Hui directly contradicts those pledges. If Singapore is serious about its international standing, it must stop treating rights as privileges and critics as threats. In light of the above, we call on:
- The Government of Singapore to immediately end all judicial harassment and threats of digital seizure against Han Hui Hui. Singapore must align its national laws with the international human rights standards it claims to support and cease using state power to suppress political expression.
- Social media companies—particularly Google, Meta, and ByteDance—to ensure that content moderation on their platforms do not silence dissenting voices, and take active measures to protect the digital rights of pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders in Singapore and across the region.
- The international community to maintain close scrutiny of the situation in Singapore. The digital repression targeting Han should not be treated as an isolated case. Continued monitoring and coordinated response are crucial to defendingand other human rights defenders in Singapore and beyond..
Media Contact:
Hafizh Nabiyyin ([email protected], Head of Freedom of Expression Division, SAFEnet).
About the ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship
The ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship, envisioned in 2020 by Manushya Foundation, is a Global Majority collective consisting of ALTSEAN-Burma, Bumi Setara (Equal Earth), Cambodian Center for Human Rights, ELSAM, Foundation for Media Alternatives, ILGA Asia, Manushya Foundation, The Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network, SAFEnet, Viet Tan, and Women’s Peace Network. The Coalition takes into account intersectional feminist perspectives, fearlessly sharing our truths, with particular focus on Global Majority voices, and Class Struggles: Women, LGBTIQA+ folks, youth, democracy defenders, and marginalised communities such as indigenous peoples, people with disabilities and religious minorities (the Rohingya people, Malayu Muslims). https://www.manushyafoundation.org/stop-digital-dictatorship-campaign
About the South East Asia Collaborative Policy Network (SEA CPN)
SEA CPN is a network of civil society organisations in Southeast Asia consisting of DAKILA, Foundation for Media Alternatives, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Online Philippines, ICT Watch, KRYSS Network, Legal Initiative for Vietnam, Manushya Foundation, Movement Against Disinformation, Open Culture Foundation, Open Net Korea, Out of the Box Media Literacy, Public Virtue Research Institute, PurpleCode Collective, SAFEnet, Security Matters, and Thai Netizen Network.. This network aims to promote internet freedom by developing the capacity of CSOs to engage and have a dialogue with ICT companies (tech companies, ISPs, and telcos), governments and ASEAN. This network was established in March 2023 in response to the commonality of internet freedom issues and problems in South East Asia countries that have been identified. These include online censorship, mass surveillance, disinformation and Influence Operations (IO), attacks on human rights defenders, spyware, red-tagging, online gender-based violence (OGBV), and others. To achieve its goal, the network is committed to developing the capacity of the network members to engage with the targeted actors, ensure well representation of South East Asia’s CSOs in the network, form a unified framework and agenda, and establish a meaningful engagement and dialogue with the targeted actors. Contact SEA CPN through [email protected].
