How does it feel to be listened to? How does it feel to be truly attentive to another person? What does it mean when listening becomes more than just hearing words?

Listening attentively is a form of respect. It is a way of showing care, of being present, and of acknowledging someone’s story. And beyond respect, attentive listening is also a way to truly get to know each other.

This was the lesson from one of the sessions at the Digital Rights in Asia-Pacific Assembly 2026 (DRAPAC26), held from 8 to 10 June in Manila, Philippines. The assembly, co-hosted by EngageMedia, the Foundation for Media Alternatives, and DAKILA – Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism, brought together more than 600 participants from across the Asia-Pacific region, with more than 60 sessions under the theme Resilient Digital Futures: Co-creating Collective Resources Across Movements.

Fatin Othman, communications and outreach officer represented MCCHR at DRAPAC26. One of the sessions she attended was an interactive collaborative storytelling session where participants were asked to describe their experiences, visions, hopes, and dreams through writing or drawing in response to guiding questions.

The lesson: this simple act of exchanging stories showed that attentive listening is not passive, it is a practice of care, respect, and solidarity.

Alongside this, MCCHR attended sessions on right-wing conservatism as a coordinated digital ecosystem in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and on child online safety regulation across Asia, which highlighted the limitations of blanket bans and the importance of “safety by design” standards that address platform architecture rather than focusing solely on content removal.

DRAPAC26 indeed facilitated open discussion on pressing but often overlooked issues, including the coordinated spread of conservative and anti-rights narratives online, gaps in child online safety regulation, and the shrinking of digital civic space through surveillance and restrictive policies around Asia-Pacific.

These are not Malaysia’s issues alone, and what makes DRAPAC26 unique is that these issues are shared by our neighbours too, albeit in different contexts shaped by demographic and political realities.

Digital rights issues – whether platform governance, child safety, or civic space – are deeply interconnected with democratic accountability, and civil society’s ability to respond effectively depends on capacity, infrastructure, and solidarity. This participation has strengthened our understanding of emerging digital rights challenges relevant to our human rights work in Malaysia.