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On a July morning in 2024, Bangladesh’s internet went dark. This was no minor inconvenience. For freelancers, digital entrepreneurs, students, and families, the shutdown severed access to income, safety, and community. It underscored a deeper reality: internet shutdowns in Bangladesh are not technical disruptions, but assaults on rights and livelihoods, disproportionately impacting working-class communities and gig workers.

In an increasingly connected digital landscape, the internet offers young people connection and opportunity, while concealing serious risks. Teenagers navigating online spaces are often exposed to exploitation, harassment, and grooming that unfold quietly and out of sight.

Platform workers in the Philippines face exploitative and often invisible working conditions. Delivery platforms use algorithms to control work, reduce autonomy, and prioritise profit over basic rights. While gig work offers flexibility, it comes with unstable income, opaque systems, and limited legal protections, leaving workers vulnerable and excluded.

Transgender and hijra communities in Bangladesh navigate a world of invisibility and risk. Even after Bangladesh legally recognised a “third gender” in 2014, transgender and hijra communities continue to face entrenched stigma and discrimination, both online and offline.

EngageMedia is providing extended impact campaign support to four filmmakers from across two editions of Tech Tales Youth. Following a competitive selection process, these filmmakers—from the Philippines and Thailand edition (2023-2024) and the Bangladesh and Malaysia edition (2024-2025)—have each been awarded an additional USD 1,000 to deepen their community engagement and digital rights advocacy work.

Bangkok's Lumina Film Festival partners with EngageMedia to showcase compelling digital rights stories from young Southeast Asian filmmakers.

The latest edition of Tech Tales Youth showcases powerful stories about digital rights from Malaysia and Bangladesh, produced by young filmmakers.

[DEADLINE EXTENDED] Cinemata is building a pool of talented Southeast Asia-based developers to contribute to the video platform's development.

EngageMedia is excited to announce the six young filmmakers from Bangladesh and Malaysia who will produce short films on human rights in the digital age as part of the third edition of the Tech Tales film collection.