FC: More on Singapore may block overseas sites that don't register

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

**********

Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 15:46:45 +0800
From: John Tanner <tanner () telecomasia net>
To: declan () well com, politechbot () politech com
Subject: Re: FC: Singapore may block overseas political sites that 
don'tregister

Hi Declan,

This is just my two bits worth for Politech [Re: FC: Singapore may block
overseas political sites that don't register]:

I'm not at all interested in defending any government's weird censorship
policies, but while this raises some interesting legal issues,
particularly in the wake of precedents like Yahoo!'s experience in
France, I don't think government blocking of non-registered foreign
sites will be that huge of a problem either way.

Not to say that the government won't try, but we've heard that one
before. Five years ago, the government required Singapore's ISPs (there
were only three at the time) to use proxy servers to block "undesirable"
overseas Web pages, such as anything having to do with drugs and porn
(the latter being so comprehensively illegal as to include Cosmopolitan,
and the former including any Web page that even suggests that some drugs
might not be as harmful or addictive as previously claimed), as well as
racism (a very sensitive subject in Singapore) and, of course,
government criticism.

But, as many predicted, the proxy servers proved ineffective as more
people went online and by 1999, the government pretty much gave up
trying to enforce the requirement, settling instead for policing
domestic sites for the same content. (Try using a Singapore-hosted
search engine to find any Web site mentioning the word "sex" or "porn"
-- the results list will be slim pickings.)

It's probably asking too much to expect the Singapore government -- or
any government, really -- to learn from its past blunders, and its
domestic censhorship efforts are, in my opinion, just as evil as their
attempts to cut Singaporeans off from "harmful" information overseas.

On the other hand, one potential cause for hope is that Singapore is
frantically trying to build itself up as THE financial, telecoms and IT
hub of southeast Asia in direct competition with Hong Kong, and the
government has already admitted indirectly that it can't go on with its
current media control policies and hope to be the truly international
cosmopolitan hub it aspires to be. A year ago, the government announced
it would no longer hold hosting providers liable for their clients'
content, in hopes of boosting Singapore's appeal as a data hubbing
center. A small step, perhaps, but an important one nevertheless. It's
difficult to see how blocking foreign-hosted political sites will play
well with Singapore's international ambitions.

But then, who ever said that nitwit censorship rationales had to make
sense? (Sigh...)

Regards,

John C. Tanner


--
John C. Tanner
Global Technology Editor
Telecom Asia/Wireless Asia
Advanstar Telecoms Group
Tel: +852 2589 1328
Fax: +852 2559 7002
Email: tanner () telecomasia net
URL: www.telecomasia.net




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