Facing the Ocean: Decolonizing Civic Tech in an East Asian Archipelago of Activism

Principle Investigator：Mei-chun Lee

Since 2019, civic hackers in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong have formed a new activist network called "Facing-the-Ocean” (FtO). Civic tech is a new form of digital activism that utilizes digital tools for political participation. In East Asia, civic hackers take a different approach compared to their counterparts in Europe and the United States, adopting a more rebellious and experimental stance to fight for their rights and challenge the authorities. This research project examines the FtO network composed of g0v from Taiwan, Code for Japan, Code for Korea, and g0v.hk, and explores whether this "Facing-the-Ocean" endeavor could decolonize civic tech, which originally emerged from Silicon Valley, and provide an alternative to digital authoritarianism that has plagued this region.