Towards an inclusive Digital Nation: Building Trust in the Digital Age in Asia Pacific

Download

Sunday 25 Feb 2024 ｜

Towards an inclusive Digital Nation: Building Trust in the Digital Age in Asia Pacific image

The benefits of participating in the digital world for people and businesses are not in doubt. This is the premise for the increasing focus on digital nationhood by governments in Asia Pacific and beyond. Governments, mobile operators and social media platforms all have a role to play here. Across Asia Pacific, these stakeholders have introduced various measures to improve online safety and build trust, some more than others. But for everyone it is a race against time, considering the ever-increasing and evolving scope of online threats.

Importantly, the task of maintaining and enhancing trust must be viewed as a shared responsibility between stakeholders, as opposed to the sole responsibility of any single stakeholder. This highlights the need for open dialogue and cooperation between all parties in the digital ecosystem. This white paper highlights five steps to support existing measures by the various stakeholders and inspire new ones:

  • Awareness: Stakeholders should take steps to create more awareness around online threats and solutions to help people and businesses stay safe online.
  • Education: People and businesses need to be equipped with ‘digital resilience’ skills (knowledge of how to navigate and respond to risks) to help them become confident digital citizens.
  • Collaboration: Collaboration within and across industries is essential to facilitate information sharing, resource pooling and efforts to take a common approach in tackling various threats. This may also involve cooperation with law enforcement in cases where the threat is illegal.
  • AI opportunity: In the emerging AI era, it is important for stakeholders to take advantage of the opportunity that AI presents to mitigate existing online threats and counter new ones.
  • International cooperation: Online threats often transcend geographical boundaries and local jurisdictions. Regional and global cooperation is required to prevent such threats to improve online safety and build trust.

 

Image by Freepik