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

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 08:28:54 -0400
>To: politech@politechbot.com
>From: 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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