Policy Lab

Platform Power, Consumer Rights, and Corporate Accountability in Asia-Pacific: Advancing UNGPs in the digital economy

ORGANIZED BY

Tifa Foundation, Open Net Korea

17-Sep

09:00-09:45

Conference Room 4

Fifteen years after the UNGPs, platforms shape global consumer rights yet harms persist. This session maps consumer harms and regulatory gaps across Asia‑Pacific, reviews UNGP progress, hears platform and civil society perspectives on due diligence and remedies, and formulates concrete asks for States and companies for the next decade.

Overview

Fifteen years after the UNGPs' endorsement, digital platforms remain among the most consequential corporate actors shaping human rights outcomes, yet consumer harm from their core business models is systematically under-addressed. This policy lab reflects on what has and hasn't changed for digital consumers in the Global South and East Asia, examining internal due diligence gaps, structural obstacles, and what would enable robust accountability without sacrificing innovation. It is grounded in primary analysis of Agreements on Reciprocal Trade negotiated by the US with ASEAN countries in 2025–2026, and testimony from rights-holders in Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand, examining how these agreements entrench platform power ahead of rights-respecting regulation.

Why it matters

Digital platforms shape human rights outcomes for billions across Asia-Pacific, yet consumer harm from their business models remains unaddressed 15 years into UNGP implementation. This is locked in by trade instruments like the US-ASEAN Agreements on Reciprocal Trade, which entrench platform power before rights-respecting regulation takes hold. This session turns diagnosis into concrete accountability asks.

Who should attend?

Civil society, regulators, platform companies, trade policy experts, and affected rights-holders working on digital rights and consumer protection in Asia-Pacific

Lab approach

Following a 15-minute presentation grounding participants in the landscape of consumer harm and trade-related risks, the remaining 30 minutes shift to structured discussion. Participants respond directly to the presentation's provocations, drawing on their own regulatory, corporate, civil society, or lived experience to identify where due diligence has and hasn't worked. Facilitators guide the group toward concrete, actionable outputs: specific asks of States and companies on due diligence standards, grievance mechanisms, and regulatory coherence, ensuring the session produces recommendations rather than only discussion.

What participants will gain

A clear picture of how digital platforms' core business models generate consumer harm across Asia-Pacific
Insight into how trade agreements (ARTs) can lock in platform power ahead of rights-respecting regulation
Understanding of where corporate human rights due diligence for consumer products has and hasn't advanced
Concrete recommendations for States and companies on due diligence, grievance mechanisms, and regulatory coherence

Debora Irene Christine

Program Manager for Data Policy and Governance, Tifa Foundation

Debora Irene Christine leads and expands Tifa Foundation's Data Policy and Governance program, overseeing strategy, programmatic direction, and institutional positioning across Indonesia and East and Southeast Asia. Her work spans tech accountability, civil society's digital resilience, and public sector data governance, including program development and resource mobilization at the intersection of human rights, democracy, and climate justice.

Kyung Shin Park

Director, Open Net Korea

Professor Kyung-Sin (K.S.) Park is one of the founders of Open Net Korea, a forum for discussion and collaboration on ICT freedoms and human rights since 2013. From 2006 through 2016, he also has served as the executive director of the PSPD Law Center, a non-profit entity that organized several high-impact litigations in the areas of free speech, privacy, and copyright.