Hi there, I'm Kai!

I am a storyteller, researcher, and journalist.

I am currently researching the politics of disclosure and open data in non-democratic contexts, through the lens of civil society's data practices and counterdata, as a PhD candidate at Stockholm University's department of media studies.

My previously published research focuses on contestations over truth and accuracy. Specifically, civil society responses to Singapore's controversial law against "fake news" and how civil society navigates authoritarian constraints over data.

Before pursuing my PhD, I studied sociology and political science, graduating at the top of my class from the University of Cambridge as a postgraduate Chevening scholar, and completing my undergraduate studies at Leiden University.

Background:

Beyond academia, I have also been a journalist with The Straits Times (Singapore's national newspaper), writing about subcultures and under-represented perspectives. Across my over two-year stint in the newsroom, I am proud to have written some of the newspaper's most unusual and surprising stories.

My feature-length investigations have spanned everything from the prevalence of image-based sexual abuse, internet restrictions and the unacknowledged grief faced by domestic workers, how the ascent of the nation's ride hailing app comes at the cost of workers' precarity, and a history of dying in Singapore.

My other work experiences include stints at other media outlets (Business Insider and Yahoo Singapore) and working with non-profits and think tanks (the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict).

I also maintain the POFMA'ed Dataset (link to Github repository), which records every instance of use of Singapore's controversial law against "fake news". This dataset was cited by Freedom House, the International Commission of Jurists, and the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights in their analyses of the law's impact on political discourse.

To contact me:

You can reach me at teokaixiang@protonmail.com or kaixiang.01 on Signal. Always happy to be a listening ear, especially if you have a story to share or are looking to collaborate on projects relating to access to information.

I can also be found on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

If you enjoy my work, check out my personal newsletter dedicated to the overlooked, obscure, and seemingly trivial things that define life in Singapore: Singapore Samizdat.