CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Anjum, Samaya |
|---|---|
| Title | Policy Diffusion from the EU DSA in Contexts of Political Repression: Lessons from Thailand and Vietnam |
| Summary | What are the impacts of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) being promoted as a global standard for content regulation and digital transparency? This paper argues that while the DSA may positively shape certain international norms and best practices, it also risks being selectively appropriated by authoritarian regimes to reinforce political repression - an outcome which is not sufficiently counterbalanced by either the Brussels Effect or the EU’s normative diplomacy. Through an analysis of policy diffusion via market influence and corporate spillover effects, voluntary policy borrowing by third countries, and processes of Europeanization in Thailand and Vietnam, the paper highlights the limits of current theoretical frameworks in capturing the region’s complexity. In Southeast Asia, the Brussels Effect is insufficient to explain the DSA’s influence, given the distinctiveness of local regulatory systems, political contexts, and relationships with the EU. It is therefore necessary to examine how the EU more actively promotes its digital norms through bilateral trade agreements, Partnership and Cooperation Agreements, and soft power instruments such as development aid and strategic dialogues. These forms of norm entrepreneurship, however, are not politically neutral and often clash with Southeast Asia’s regional cognitive priors, particularly the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention, which are used to resist external human rights scrutiny. Ultimately, the DSA’s global significance - whether it fosters genuine transparency or legitimizes authoritarian digital governance - will depend on the EU’s willingness to uphold its human rights commitments over geopolitical and economic interests in foreign policy in the region. |
| Supervisor | Granger, Marie-Pierre; Ashraf, Cameran |
| Department | Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/anjum_samaya.pdf |
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