Mobilising Dissent in a Digital Age: The Curious Case of Amos Yee

ABSTRACT

Political containers frame opinions. They play a formative role in establishing the terms of interpretation, in distinguishing between assent and dissent, and in determining the extent to which dissent is publicly tolerated. Whilst it is by now widely acknowledged that the power and influence of political containers have been relativised by interconnection, the effects of moving within and between containers – and thus mediating between different framings of opinion – are under-theorised. Also, the enabling role of digital media in disseminating dissent, and in bringing about disproportionate reach and impact, remains understudied. Addressing these lacunae, this paper explores the ways in which dissent can be reproduced, reframed, and thus mobilised in a digital age. It advances the concept of geopolitical arbitrage to explain how movement can lead to the reframing of the political containers of origin and destination, and of the object that moved. By drawing on the case of Amos Yee – a young Singaporean blogger who was imprisoned for engaging in anti-religious “hate speech” – I demonstrate how digital media enabled the mobilisation of dissent by giving his voice undue attention, and how his movement from Singapore to the US on the grounds of asylum enabled a reframing of himself, and of the political containers that he moved between.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. Whilst the American Department of Homeland Security appealed the decision, in September 2017 the immigration appeals board ruled in Yee’s favour. He was subsequently freed from jail, where he had been kept since he arrived in the US (BBC News 27.09.17).

2. Indeed, in September 2017 the US immigration appeals board noted that Yee had a “well-founded fear of future persecution in Singapore” (cited in BBC News 27.09.17), the subtext being that he was “persecuted” for his criticism of the government.