LIRNEasia participated in RightsCon 2025, the world’s largest gathering of digital rights leaders, held in Taipei and online from February 24 to 27, 2025. The event brought together business leaders, policymakers, human rights advocates, technologists, and academics to address the intersection of human rights and technology.

As digital landscapes evolve, discussions at RightsCon focused on pressing issues such as data governance, AI regulation, and the future of work—topics that LIRNEasia’s CEO Helani Galpaya, and our Data, Algorithm, and Policy Team Lead Merl Chandana tackled in their panel contributions. Their insights highlighted the challenges facing the Global South and provided actionable strategies for policy and regulatory frameworks.

“Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy: What Global Research Tells Us”

CEO Helani Galpaya participated in two panels. In her first session, “Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy: What Global Research Tells Us,” organized by the Observatory on Information and Democracy (OID), she joined global experts to explore the role of digital technologies in shaping democratic processes. The panel discussed OID’s inaugural global report, which compiles research on how digital technology affects information ecosystems and democracy worldwide. Modeled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), OID aims to bridge the gap between research and policy with the support of hundreds of academics.

Helani focused on data governance, specifically the economic models that enable data accumulation and concentration in the hands of a few private-sector companies. While the report addressed private-sector data monopolies, she highlighted the overlooked issue of how government digitalization is also leading to vast amounts of citizen data being collected. However, instead of fostering innovation or enabling civil society oversight, this data often remains siloed within government agencies.

She also examined proposed community-driven data initiatives as a potential solution to data concentration as highlighted in the report. However, she cautioned against over-relying on “community” models as a silver bullet, noting that many communities lack the resources to develop independent data governance systems and can sometimes be exclusionary. While community-driven models are useful for certain issues and governing certain types of data, broader challenges require interoperable, national, and cross-national data systems, which must be backed by strong regulation and policy. She noted that “fetishizing community approaches” is not always a good thing.

The panel also featured Jhalak Kakkar (Executive Director, Center for Communication Governance, National Law University Delhi) and Jeannette Hofman (Freie University for Internet Politics, Berlin Social Science Center, and the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society). The session was moderated by Camille Grenier from the Forum on Information and Democracy.

“Reskilling for Tomorrow: Navigating Tech Transformations and Future Jobs in the Global South”

In her second panel, “Reskilling for Tomorrow: Navigating Tech Transformations and Future Jobs in the Global South,” organized by Sur Futuro. Helani examined how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping employment and what policy responses are needed in the Global South.

She stressed the need for fair competition and taxation policies to create a level playing field between local and international digital job platforms. She pointed out other measures such as platform workers being able to move to other platforms with their data and how digital lockers and other digital public infrastructure can increasingly enable such consent-based credential and data sharing, and thus reduce switching costs. Helani also emphasized the importance of long-term competition regulation—moving beyond focusing purely on short-term consumer benefits and thinking through how large, well-capitalized global companies can dominate and distort local markets in the long term.

The panel included Mark Graham (Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK) and Ruth Castel-Branco (University of Witwatersrand, South Africa), with Ramiro Albrieu from Sur Futuro moderating the discussion.

“Data and AI in Development Challenges”

LIRNEasia’s Data, Algorithm, and Policy Team Lead, Merl Chandana, also contributed significantly to RightsCon, speaking on a panel titled “Data and AI in Development Challenges.”

As the regional team lead contributing to the Global Index on Responsible AI which evaluates government commitments and capacities across 140+ countries to promote responsible AI, Merl explained its methodology, global scope, and how it differentiates itself from other AI measurement frameworks. He argued that regulation alone is insufficient to ensure responsible AI practices and called for capacity-building, education, and awareness programs to foster ethical AI development.

Merl also underscored that AI’s impact on the future of work is twofold:

1. The expansion of AI model-building value chains, which creates new job categories.
2. The displacement and transformation of existing tasks as AI systems become more advanced.

He emphasized the importance of practical AI implementation in the Global South—starting with small-scale, well-planned AI projects rather than large, expensive, and poorly designed initiatives. This approach, he said, allows policymakers to identify regulatory gaps, address capacity-building needs, and develop responsible AI ecosystems.

The panel was moderated by Natalia Carfi from Open Data Charter, and also featured Gaston Wright (Director, Civic Compass) and Vinay Narayan (Senior Manager, Aapti Institute).