Locating DIY in the digital shift: Exploring grassroots activist responses to COVID-19 in Indonesia and the Philippines

Abstract

This article explores opportunities and obstacles encountered by activists in Indonesia and the Philippines when forced to adapt to COVID-19 regulations. Although digital activism pre-dated the pandemic, mobility restrictions and social isolation have prompted a greater dependence on the virtual realm for protest tactics. The pandemic provides a unique temporal lens to highlight the role of DIY in activist communities in Indonesia and the Philippines, and the challenges of translating the material into the digital. Considering existing inequalities in the digital divide across the Global South and government responses to dissidents, the article critically interrogates the matters of digital literacy and surveillance risks in virtual activism. Findings throughout the article are supported by interview data from online fieldwork with activists in both Indonesia and the Philippines in 2021.