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lokman.org
writer, recovering academic, amateur activist, with a focus on free speech, new technologies, and hong kong. fellow @citizenlab.ca. he/him. writing a personal history of home and authoritarianism.
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take the @globalvoices.org news quiz and see how knowledgeable you are about news in other countries. i only got the first and last question right :S globalvoices.org/2025/05/22/g...

this is why i appreciate and trust @signal.org. honest and transparent, explaining their decision process in a public post. taking us seriously and educating us at the same time. courageous and brave, speaking truth to power, not afraid to call out even microsoft. signal.org/blog/signal-...

hong kong government says other people should learn from negative feedback www.scmp.com/news/hong-ko...

📣 DIGITAL DEFENCE RESOURCES As part of the EU-funded “Pro-democracy platform advocacy" project, our resources suggest solutions for specific harassment problems, based on our academic research. The resources are available in English, Burmese, Khmer and Thai. Check them out: www.digidef.info 1/2

✍🏼 300 pgs condensed into 10 slides! 1/ 📖 My thesis (aka brain child) explores the social realities for diaspora & dissident communities—including my own. As a sociologist-in-training, I explored power dynamics within and between communities - as well as their interaction with their host societies.

putting this on my "watch later" list www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIDT...

harrowing. "One third of my friends and students are now in exile, another third of my friends and students are in jail, and I'm sort of… in limbo," www.bbc.com/news/article...

“The very platforms that have led to our social isolation and being chronically online are now posing a solution to the loneliness epidemic,” said Meghana Dhar, a former Instagram executive... “It almost seems like the arsonist coming back and being the fireman.” www.wsj.com/tech/ai/mark...

WSJ: How Bad Is #China ’s Economy? The Data Needed to Answer Is Vanishing Beijing has stopped publishing hundreds of statistics, making it harder to know what’s going on in the country --but some information that has disappeared defies explanation

Two years ago, I heard that Taiwan's govt had unearthed surveillance files from the secret police of its authoritarian era. They were finally becoming open to the public, nearly four decades after Taiwan's democratisation. I wanted to see what was inside: www.economist.com/1843/2025/05...

The 2025 RSF index of world press freedom is out. Hong Kong is ranked 140 out of 179, snuggly inbetween Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan. It is officially in the "red zone", together with China that is ranked 178. N-Korea is last. To put in context: HK was ranked 18, back in 2002. rsf.org/en/index

Former lawmaker Claudia Mo published her first social media post on Friday, three days after she completed her jail term of four years and two months for a conspiracy to commit subversion. Photo: Claudia Mo, via Facebook.

On this #LabourDay a post in solidarity for a fellow worker: Hong Kong-based journalist Minnie Chan is still missing. Last seen at an event in Beijing, last story filed November 1, 2023. We will never stop hoping for her safe return to her children & family. www.scmp.com/author/minni...

it’s shocking how this doesn’t even feel like news to me anymore hongkongfp.com/2025/04/30/h...

The Hong Kong journalist diaspora strikes to report on politically sensitive news and connect the scattered diaspora communities.

trying to survive authoritarianism? a reminder to not get too good at it. @globalvoices.org www.youtube.com/shorts/9TltZ...

This was such an amazing conversation! so much insight and solidarity. You can watch the recording now:

"Make sure you don't get so good at survival that you don't forget to live and thrive"—@lokman.org on the latest episode of @globalvoices.org's Global Voices Insights. Watch the full episode at www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCIF...

thread 👇

NEW REPORT: We examine a coordinated social media harassment and #doxxing campaign - codenamed “JUICYJAM” - that has been targeting the Thai pro-democracy movement (#ม็อบ) since at least 2020. Read it here: citizenlab.ca/2025/04/how-...

Reminder: 🎙️ Don't miss our #GVInsights session, today at 10 am EDT/3pm UTC/4pm CET, on YouTube Live youtube.com/watch?v=pCIF... Panelists from Hong Kong, Azerbaijan, Venezuela and Ukraine share their experiences of the trauma and surreality of authoritarianism globalvoices.org/2025/04/11/l...

trump: my (tariff) is bigger! xia: our (history) is even bigger!

friendly reminder: if it's your first time experiencing authoritarianism, or if you are a fellow veteran, come hang out tomorrow with this all-star panel (and then there is me) hosted by @globalvoices.org

I was at HKU yesterday and this is what the “democracy wall” looks like now. It has the same name. And cameras though. But nothing else

Authoritarianism is already here, it's just not evenly distributed. Join us to hear voices from the future, discussing their experiences in Hong Kong, Azerbaijan, Venezuela, and Ukraine, live on Wednesday or watch the recording any time~

HK's Democratic Party has passed a motion bringing it closer to disbandment, following reports that Chinese officials warned its senior members to shut down the opposition party before the upcoming legislative elections. In full: buff.ly/AfedSSu

Courage is contagious. But how do we catch it? For months, @amifieldsmeyer.bsky.social and I have been asking dissidents and activists from around the world how we can topple authoritarianism. We assembled their lessons into a field guide to courage. www.newyorker.com/news/the-wee...

New event 📆16th April 🕑10am Eastern @globalvoices.org host "Voices from the Future: stories about authoritarianism" w/ @samantaazpurua.bsky.social @tanyalokot.bsky.social @arzugeybulla.bsky.social & @lokman.org Live on YT: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCIF... Details globalvoices.org/2025/04/11/l...

come hang out with us, and let's chat all things authoritarianism. with @samantaazpurua.bsky.social @tanyalokot.bsky.social @arzugeybulla.bsky.social @older.bsky.social globalvoices.org/2025/04/11/l...

when even the fig leaf has to go www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

China denied any military involvement in Ukraine, after Kyiv said it had captured two Chinese men in the country’s east. www.wsj.com/world/china-...

Technical analysis, as well as advisory, on spyware targeting Uyghur, Taiwanese, and Tibetan groups. www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/advisor...

Today we are proud to launch the Hong Kong Accountability Archive (HKAA), an independent database of videos from the 2019 pro-democracy protests aimed at protecting freedom of peaceful assembly by preserving evidence of human rights violations. Watch this promo for more on the project.

I've been arguing for years that universities need to do a significantly better job of preparing students and scholars for travel to countries presenting serious speech concerns. It should deeply disturb us that this warning is now being given for scholars entering the US. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I wrote a thing! It’s about how our totally legitimate desire to regulate platforms keeps leading to laws that empower *governments* in ways that are very dangerous to ordinary people. This is not the way.

This is an appropriate response. Chinese bounty comments taken lightly would be an endorsement for transnational repression. No place in a democracy.

The president of Princeton is standing up for academic freedom in the face of this onslaught: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv... The president of Harvard is not. Good for Princeton and its leadership. A bad day for Harvard, on many levels.

Good news to kick off this Monday, who would have thought? www.dw.com/en/marine-le...

i just came across this quote from steinbeck: "it's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone." the quote gives me comfort when i think about what has happened to hong kong, what is still happening. and to an extent, if im honest, about my own life as well.

instead of relying on the USG, we need to start relying on each other. "The Future of International Development Is Mutual Aid, Not Donor Aid". by @older.bsky.social @blairglencorse.bsky.social www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/the-fut...