Samaya Anjum’s Post

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of returning to Taipei for the 2026 Internet Week. It was an honour sharing a panel with Benoît Loutrel, Professor Chih-Liang Yeh, Emma Liao, Keng-Ying Tseng, and Commissioner Yi-Hui Wang on the trends in and the pitfalls of global digital governance - my sincerest thanks to the Taiwan National Communications Commission, Taipei Computer Association 台北市電腦商業同業公會, and Tai-Chen Chiang for the invitation. Having spent years tracking digital regulation across the Asia-Pacific, I continue to be fascinated by the dynamism and diversity of approaches emerging across the region. It constantly keeps one on their toes. Taiwan’s model is particularly distinctive and instructive: rather than concentrating authority within a single regulator, it adopts a distributed approach where sectors such as health, transportation, finance, and others take the lead in governing their own digital issues. At the same time, Taiwan’s experience also underscores the challenges inherent in such a model and the critical importance of strong cross-ministerial coordination. Digital rights protections are not always the foremost priority for sectoral agencies, which further highlights the need for overarching frameworks grounded in international human rights and humanitarian law, without which broader public trust, accountability, and equitable development can ultimately be affected. It was also wonderful reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, while meeting members of Taiwan’s incredibly vibrant civil society community working at the forefront of these issues, and I truly look forward to visiting again. Global Network Initiative