We’re promoting digital resilience among youth and civil society in Southeast Asia (SEA).
SEA Changemakers fosters digital resilience and citizenship among youth and civil society in three Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam. We work with local partners to support public outreach, digital safety training, and research and advocacy on the Internet landscape.
Since 2014, we’ve been supporting the changemaker generation: digital natives aged 18-25. They’re the ones leading the way as Internet use skyrockets across Southeast Asia, especially on social media. They’re also the ones who can champion safe, strong digital citizenship on the road ahead. Together, they can help their communities thrive in the global digital economy—without leaving vulnerable populations behind.
We build on the work of local civil society and researchers, while adapting the Foundation’s unique CyberSTAR digital safety framework. For organizations, CyberSTAR offers an integrated pathway that runs from safety audits through remediation and training. For everyone, it makes the digital safety universe accessible by framing it as six points of a star: risks, identity, passwords, conversations, devices and data.
How we promote digital resilience:
Outreach: Especially through social media, we’re raising awareness of how to stay safe online—and we help youth take the reins. For instance, in Vietnam, the Chong Hack digital safety brand is now curated by Vietnet-ICT and members of the Youth Internet Governance Forum committee we helped establish.
Training: Our digital safety trainers offer localized courses to individuals and civil society organizations— based on the Foundation’s CyberSTAR framework. We’re also curating web portals with online assessments and course materials, like Vietnam’s Digital Safety Hub and Myanmar’s DigiSecLab.
Research & advocacy: Focusing on vulnerable communities, we show how digital resilience helps people thrive. We support local advocacy to integrate safety into national digital strategies, including through Youth Internet Governance Forum initiatives. Currently, we’re coordinating the Myanmar Digital Research series.
Digital brands we’ve helped build:

Digital safety awareness in Vietnamese. Now curated by Vietnet-ICT.

Self assessment and training tools in Vietnamese, especially for civil society.

Digital safety awareness and tools in the Khmer language.

Online digital safety courses for citizens in Myanmar.
SEA Stories
Myanmar’s Digital Resistance: Ingenuity Under Repression
Even as Myanmar’s military tries to control online space, people on the ground keep adapting. Five studies map the creative resilience behind their organizing, fundraising, and survival.
Gender as a Battleground in Post-Coup Myanmar: Six Studies
In post-coup Myanmar, gender is a battleground, and digital space is one of its fiercest fronts. Six studies expose the harms and offer ways forward toward safety and justice.
Myanmar’s Brutalizing Scam Sector: What it Will Take to Turn the Tide
A look inside Myanmar’s fast-growing scam economy, where trafficking, online manipulation and everyday fraud thrive amid crisis. Three new studies show why only international action can turn the tide.
Local Voices, Global Impact: Our Myanmar Researchers at GDC 2025
Three contributors to our Myanmar Digital Research series are taking the stage at this year's Global Development Conference 2025, showing how researchers from fragile contexts are ready to shape global conversations about digital inclusion and power.
Fandom for Freedom: How Myanmar Youth are Fueling the Resistance
Two young Myanmar researchers show how K-pop fans became unlikely engines of resistance after the coup. Now their work is breaking into Southeast Asia’s cultural conversation.
Inside Myanmar’s Cyber-Scam Compounds
How do Myanmar’s cyber-scam compounds trap thousands in cycles of fear and coercion? Journalist "Ying" spent two years investigating, and we've been pleased to support her work.
Digital Repression and Resistance in Myanmar: Fresh Insight
Four years after the military coup, repression and conflict remain daily realities for people in Myanmar. Six new Foundation-supported research studies explore how digital life intersects with repression, identity and activism.
Confronting Violence Against Women in Post-Coup Myanmar
Two new Foundation-supported research studies tackle pressing issues for women in post-coup Myanmar: non-consensual pornography targeting the resistance and toxic narratives appearing inside it.
Hopes and Challenges: Online Education in Myanmar
For youth in Myanmar, online education presents both precious hope and extreme challenges. Four new Foundation-supported studies explore today’s realities and what needs to happen next.
Myanmar’s Journalists Need Digital Safety Support
A new Foundation-supported study from EngageMedia unpacks digital threats that journalists face in post-coup Myanmar—and why international donors must start baking holistic digital safety support into their projects.
