Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Rights groups, tech companies, academics and journalists opposed the law, which they say threatens free speech.
A "fake news" law, decried by academics, activists and tech giants, has gone into effect in Singapore, despite warnings that the measures could be used to stifle dissent and free speech in the South East Asian island country.
The law, which was passed by Singapore's parliament in May but took effect on Wednesday, gives government ministers powers to order social media companies to put warnings next to posts authorities deem to be false, order some content to be removed and in some cases block websites deemed to be propagating false information contrary to "public interest".
In April, shortly before the bill passed, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said the legislation was an "essential part" of fighting fake news and hate speech.
[...] Over 170 academics signed a letter saying the legislation had been fast-tracked without proper input from "key civil society actors."
The law is "likely to have a chilling effect on freedom of expression and academic freedom in Singapore", they said.
(Score: 2, Touché) by fustakrakich on Saturday October 05 2019, @05:12PM (3 children)
Pfft! When did they ever have that? Must have been pretty mousy, weak, impotent... as the new laws reveal.
The place is a dictatorship with a velvet glove... dissent and "free speech" were never a thing. Poor people are well caged and kept out of sight. The only people "protesting" are academics, activists and tech giants. It is a Businessland. That's what they should name the place.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 05 2019, @06:38PM (1 child)
"Disneyland with the death penalty" as the famous article called it.
Not really. Poor people are "managed", meaning the government will organize places to live for them. You see a lot of them and they provide a lot of the culture that can make Singapore an enjoyable place to visit. The country is small (An earlier foreign minister of Taiwan called it a "country hardly bigger than a snot"), and has a large and somewhat diverse population. Unless you are rich, you'll be housed in an HDB flat, in a government organized village, with a food court at the bottom of your 30 floor cluster of buildings, and a subway station nearby.
Opposition politicians too, but anyone risking speaking openly against the People's Action Party is liable to be tried and imprisoned for "libel". Though I don't see why tech giants would, they share the same goals as the government: Keep people purchasing and distracted.
That it is, a kingdom run by the Lee family. In truth they do maintain a first world presence in a neighborhood of laxity and religious and racial distrust, at the cost of the freedom to say what you want. And there are many people there who forcefully advocate for that balance.
Uncyclopedia may have some more background info: https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Singapore [uncyclopedia.co]
(Score: 3, Funny) by chromas on Saturday October 05 2019, @07:20PM
"Sorry, hon, I gotta go in for a PAP smear."
(Score: 2) by EvilJim on Tuesday October 08 2019, @11:03PM
Too right, you cant even spraypaint a wall without being caned
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hwertz on Saturday October 05 2019, @05:26PM (6 children)
I'm conflicted.
First off, Singapore has no 1st ammendment. So there's no situation with people there ignoring the law when they pass this.
So, I'm conflicted. On the one hand, free speech is always better. But, too many people on places like Facebook have ZERO capability of evaluating info -- absolutely zero -- anything that is not entertainment they treat as news. Note, not even just politics, my friend used to read a "fact" a day facebook thing where AT LEAST 2/3rds of the "facts" were wrong, stuff like "Jupiter is 4x the size of Earth" (it's not, it's like 1300 times the size), and KEPT reading it after I pointed out most of the "facts" weren't facts. (He doesn't read it any more simply because he ditched facebook entirely due to their horrible privacy policies. Well, except he didn't I found out he's still using messenger... which kind of makes it pointless but that's another issue.)
Personally I think the fair compromise is to not block or remove ANY content but put up the big fat warnings next to it. Honestly when there's a big ol' sign saying some info is suspect.. well, the Fox news types might even take it as some badge of courage or something but at least people won't be drawn in unsuspecting.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 05 2019, @05:44PM
Where I'm from the Irish are referred to as the sea jews and the Israelites as the camel jews. Fact or fiction?
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday October 05 2019, @06:26PM (1 child)
Banning Trump from Twitter would be a good start, but it's too profitable, so he gets to burn down the country while others reap the profits. Facebook and Twitter are just today's bread and circuses.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @01:51AM
If they'd stay there and only there...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 05 2019, @06:27PM
Except then you have a problem where anything that puts Singapore in bad light has a possibility of getting flagged. I wonder if they would flag that Singaporean companies are basically contributing to some of the largest environmental destruction in the region while at the same time they advertise themselves as environmentally conscious.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1070496516677365?journalCode=jeda [sagepub.com]
http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?279350/Singapore-companies-causing-or-preventing-the-haze [panda.org]
https://bioenergyinternational.com/opinion-commentary/nestes-singapore-expansion-set-to-drive-deforestation-says-biofuelwatch [bioenergyinternational.com]
Also, quite a lot of countries in region are banning sand exports to Singapore (yes, environmental reasons)
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/malaysia-bans-sea-sand-export-singapore-reclamation-expansion-11690424 [channelnewsasia.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @03:07AM
I think something may need clarification here. Just because Singapore "has no 1st amendment" doesn't necessarily mean that Singaporeans don't have these rights. In fact, one of James Madison's principal objections to inclusion of a bill of rights amendment was that any attempt to enumerate individual rights risked the implication that other, unnamed rights were unprotected. [wikipedia.org] If I'm following you then you are suggesting that if some right is not explicitly granted then that right does not exist; I will note that this view does seem to have popularity in some quarters. I think Madison would disagree. Just some food for thought.
Personally, I don't much like the idea of putting up warnings on content. The real issue is that too many people don't seem to have the wherewithal to evaluate the information they are consuming. Consequently, too many people are too easily manipulated by peddlers of propaganda. Also, I suspect for many people the truth of the matter under discussion is merely secondary to winning an argument. The thinking goes who cares if this propaganda is correct so long as it advances my agenda or political party? I'm not yet sure how to counter that issue as no amount of fact-checking is going to persuade them away from their position.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Username on Sunday October 06 2019, @03:00PM
Whenever I see censorship of a meme, like the removal of the share button, or "fact checks" below an image when posted, the only thing it tells me is that the left is afraid of the message because it has some core truth to it. For instance the gretchen thumberger (sp?), that mentally ill swedish girl the altleft had at a global warming conference, meme where she is eating some probably vegan gluten free non-gmo meal in front of some copy pasted starving africans. They wont let you share it on facebook, and if you save it and reupload, it gives some fake factchecks. All because they don't want people to notice rich eurohippies are "fighting" global warming by trying to take poor peoples food sources away.
Anyway, SG is just one tiny country, one city. Good testing ground for legal restrictions of online slander, lies or deceptions. Big tech is currently trying to sway the 2020 election through the restriction of memes and right wing personalities and posting of fake factchecks. Like googles effort to hide any search results of Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, chick from liveaction, etc. Even if their name is in quotes or direct title of the video. Then facebook posting of some persons anecdotal evidence or outright conjecture as facts. I sometimes think it would benefit society is government took active steps to stop this bs from happening.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 05 2019, @05:47PM (9 children)
Coming soon to an increasingly dystopian country near you!
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday October 05 2019, @06:30PM (8 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @01:25AM (7 children)
The government forcefully shutting down modes of communication would reduce the chances of a dystopian future? Wtf?
And btw I would never use Facebook or Twitter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @01:55AM (6 children)
Twitter and FB, does what's going on there qualifies as communication?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @07:52AM (5 children)
No one is forced to use it. Forcing people to not use it is by definition a step down the path to dystopia.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday October 06 2019, @01:28PM (4 children)
BTW, plenty of jurisdictions don't allow hate speech or false advertising, and seem to be doing better than the United States of Disinformation on the democracy and press freedom scales.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @02:03PM (3 children)
You don't need to regulate food and water to stop people from eating shit, they can figure that out on their own unless you had some other regulation forcing them to do that.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday October 06 2019, @03:42PM (2 children)
Stupid libertarian bullshit doesn't cut it in the real world. We need regulations to create a level playing field, control bad actors (Chinese baby milk cut with melamine), and lessen the tragedy of the commons.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @05:38PM (1 child)
So everyone before like 1930 was just eating shit? WTF are you talking about? No wonder the world is headed into a dystopian shithole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @08:57PM
"So everyone before like 1930 was just eating shit?"
You do realize that before 1930 a lot of people were dying of food-borne illnesses, yes? There were reasons for creation of federal agencies like the FDA.
"No wonder the world is headed into a dystopian shithole."
I tell you what. Why don't you swap places with someone living in Flint, MI for a few years? Then you can report back to us on dystopian shit holes. Deal?
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday October 05 2019, @06:54PM (2 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @02:03AM (1 child)
Citation needed.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Sunday October 06 2019, @02:44AM
But it's closer than Hong Kong, politically.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-and-china-s-common-interest-greater-than-any-8878812
They've been getting progressively cozier for decades, and the folks that were strongly against the PRC have mostly picked up and left. Leaving it even more strongly pro-PRC.
It's a very convenient asset for China, a money-laundering capital just next door with a compliant government that's happy to deal with them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rIdpYw2ke4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV0AgsokLNw
Singapore is a tiny and extremely wealthy city state which lies only something like 300 miles south of the closest Chinese claim. It gives them a solid base to the south of Vietnam, which would allow them to invade from both North AND South simultaneously in their next war. It's some extremely important strategic real estate for them and they are quite deeply invested.
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/spore-top-destination-for-china-investments
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Entropy on Saturday October 05 2019, @07:02PM (2 children)
It's the opposite of freedom. It's used to control the populace, which makes it even more sad when some people support laws that are basically censorship. You can declare anything "fake", "racist", or "offensive" which means you can silence ANYONE you want.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday October 06 2019, @03:54PM (1 child)
Last week has brought discussions of Trump's declining mental health and obvious corruption into the mainstream, as governments try to figure out how to deal with a country led by a clearly irrational and corrupt president who is not running some 3rd world backwater.
He's a traitor but there are too many who have profited from it who can't say anything now - republican senators spring to mind.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Entropy on Sunday October 06 2019, @04:04PM
You're probably one of those people that believes (insert awful thing here) is necessary due to "Protect the children!" or "Terrorists!". Lately we've added "Racist!" to the generic battle cries used to justify all sorts of awful things. People have the fundamental right to express themselves, even if they are wrong. The proper way to deal with people that are wrong are to actually open a discussion which will naturally reveal their flaws. The communist China approach is pretty sad, in my opinion.
Freedom is important. If people are too dumb to deal with free speech then educate them. If people are too wimpy to deal with free speech that makes them uncomfortable, then have them grow up.