BOOK PROJECT

My book project, entitled Suggestion and Suppression: Regulating Public Interpretation and Knowledge of Data in Authoritarian Regimes, examines how authoritarian regimes limit the political impact of information flow while extracting its economic benefits. Many authoritarian regimes are implementing data sharing policies to exploit data as an economic resource that generates innovation. However, increased information flow can threaten the political stability of authoritarian regimes by facilitating collective action and strengthening government accountability. What strategies, then, do authoritarian regimes employ to regulate information under conditions of increased data openness? Focusing on Malaysia, a Southeast Asian electoral authoritarian that has embraced data sharing initiatives for economic transformation, I argue that authoritarian regimes differentiate sensitive data into those that are malleable and that are immutable. The extent to which data can be manipulated is dependent on whether they can be (1) technically verified, and (2) socially verified. I further argue that authoritarian regimes regimes then choose which type of control strategy to employ depending on the type of data at hand. They preemptively employ suggestion to shape public interpretation of malleable data and censorship to limit public knowledge of immutable ones. I also pinpoint the exact mechanisms of data manipulation by focusing on the characteristics of data provided, such as the granularity and conceptualization of variables.

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES

Neo, H.Y. (2025). Education, Control, and the Knowledge Economy in Southeast Asia’s Hybrid Regimes. Pacific Affairs, 98 (1), 29–52. https://doi.org/10.5509/2025981-art2

WORKING PAPERS

Suggestion and Censorship: Regulating Public Perception and Public Knowledge of Data in Authoritarian Regimes (under review). Draft available upon request.

Penalizing Personal Politicians: Experimental Evidence on Social Embeddedness and Voter Behavior in Indonesia (with Harry Dienes, Burhan Muhtadi, and Eitan Paul). Draft available upon request.

Social Media Elections, Bureaucratic Mimicry, and the Erosion of State Power: The Case of Nepal (with James Higgs and Luciano Floridi). (Submitted to Science, Technology & Human Values)

WORKS-IN-PROGRESS

Candidates, Coalitions, and Voter Preferences in Ideologically Inconsistent Environments: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment in Indonesia (with Harry Dienes, Afrimadona, and Eitan Paul)

Menu of Data Manipulation: Authoritarian Control of the Presentation and Interpretation of Numerical Information

PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP

‘A turn towards transparency: the case for more open data in Singapore’ for Jom, July 18, 2025: https://www.jom.media/a-turn-towards-transparency-the-case-for-more-open-data-in-singapore/