Singapore Eyes Sweeping Powers To Police Online Content, Apps

Singapore's government is taking the first steps toward codifying a new internet safety law that would grant it wide-ranging powers over content, access and communication online. From a report: The Online Criminal Harms Bill, introduced for a first reading in parliament on Monday, is aimed at cracking down on illicit activities like scams, misinformation, cybercrime drug trafficking and the spread of exploitative images. It is part of a wider "suite of legislation" to protect Singaporeans online, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement. The bill is likely to pass into law without strong opposition, as most proposed legislation does in the city-state's parliament. It would grant the government broad powers to restrict content online: from blocking the communication of certain material or web addresses to removing apps from mobile stores or restricting accounts on social networks. It further advocates a proactive approach to preventing malicious cyber activity, allowing those powers to be used on the suspicion that a given website or account may be used in such acts. The bill also includes a provision for service providers to appeal the government's directives.

Re: "The Beating of a Liberal"

[Malays2 bowman]

"MEIN FEE FEES ARRRGH!"

  You seem to be sore because of the 1/6/21 fiasco and that the American public saw your true colors on display that day.

Fascist, but the streets are clean & crime is

[XXongo]

You have to keep in mind that Singapore is, in fact, a fascist police state.

This is the demo model showing how wonderful fascism is when done right... but it's still fascist. Clean and well-run just as long as you don't run afoul of the powers in any way.

Re:Fascist, but the streets are clean & crime

[bugs2squash]

Crime committed by Singapore's citizens is low. Crime committed by the government on its citizens and especially on foreigners is pretty egregious

Re: Fascist, but the streets are clean & crime

[Malays2 bowman]

As long as the fascism is contained and people have a choice to live somewhere else, without the fascism.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Clean and well-run just as long as you don't run afoul of the powers in any way.

Which includes "being typical". So anything outside the strictly defined boundaries of cisgender and neurotypical behavior is OK, but anything beyond that and the consequences can be pretty bad.

There is a "great firewall of Singapore" but no one ever seems to mention it - it all seems to disappear because China.

Re:

[dstwins]

What the heck are you taking about.. Singapore's support of the LBGTQ community is a 1000% times better than the US's is.. (and while same-sex marriages aren't currently recognized yet (its coming), adoption and other protections for the community are WAY better. And the not very often used Section 377A of the criminal code was repealed effectively ending criminalization of same-sex acts. Since 2019, protections against anti-gay violence and aggravated discrimination were also put into legislation; Home A

Re:

[unts]

it doesn't censor or filter content coming into and out the country

Actually DNS filtering is done [wikipedia.org] by the three major ISPs at the behest of IMDA. But the rest of what you say is reasonable, even if not everybody will agree with it.

Re:

[dstwins]

How?..

Fascism is defined by extreme nationalism, militarism, and the supremacy of state or nation over any/all individual citizens.

Their actions about blocking suspected criminal sites, scams, misinformation, drug crime, etc.. is as far from that as anything.. In fact, almost ALL countries (except the US have put forth similar bills BECAUSE these things exist right now unopposed.

i.e: You can't stand on the street corner and hawk drugs.. so why can you do it online?
You can't stand on the street corner and co

Facict Police State

[0xG]

Seems to be the way people there LIKE it.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press... [ohchr.org]