Student Online Discussion

Censorship in Singapore: “The Surveillance and Society institute has a number of excellent articles. One is by Terence Lee, titled, “Internet Control and Auto-regulation in Singapore.� Singapore is a city-state that is one of the most technically advanced and networked societies on earth. However, it is a highly regulated and censored society. Its citizens are expected to be self-disciplined, auto-regulated, moral (with Singapore ideals), technologically savvy, and politically compliant people within a Foucauldian mode of government. Authorities in Singapore have shown how government could be smaller in the digital age because the citizens would be docile, due to publicly supported Internet regulations. This form of control would be technologically self-regulated. Singapore has been pressured to loosen hold of its media by its liberal competitors. The result is that Singapore is tightening control of its media and Internet, while government is becoming an “e-Government.� The government continues to regulate which people have access to certain media and what information they can obtain. Does this sound very Orwellian to you?

You can select third article from bottom of list & download PDF file:

http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/journalv3i1.htm

“(Gabrielle Strassmann)

“…I certainly hope that our government does not take any bits of advice from the corporations that sell software to China and Singapore to use on us or in Europe. Cisco have Microsoft specialized software for these Asian customers that could also be sold to the FBI, hypothetically.� (Gabrielle Strassmann)

The following quotes pertain to the protective aspects of censure versus repressive censure from governments in control:
Questions of the week: “Some say that the Net shouldn't be censored at all, in any way. Only in this way can information really be truly shared among people. I think that's too simple. The fact is that there are children and people who need protecting out there with access.� (Erik Strohmeyer)

“The problem with branding sites is that you cannot control all of them. References to porn can be found in any type of web site. Last week, I found "adult" links on the bottom of a real estate web site.� (Gabrielle Strassmann)

“The good thing is that the same human ingenuity can be used as an argument in the battle against censorship. It seems that no matter how hard a government tries to control the media there are people who manage to set up underground newspapers, pirate radio stations and different ways to defeat web filters to get the word out. As long as there is a hunger for the truth there will be ways for people to get to it.� (Mark Caswell)

“Censorship is not the answer. We should (contrary to our scapegoat society) take responsibility for ourselves and our children.� (Christopher Bousquet)

Website examples for know your sources: Censorship for Chinese Bloggers? “The link below is an article about Microsoft customizing blogging software for sale to its China division. Below the article is a list of reader comments (from readers outside of China). The reader comments are very interesting. Link:

http://www.atsnn.com/story/147353.html

“(Gabrielle Strassmann)

"I have the perfect example of a fake website. MIT students put this site up and people thought it was real. http://www.bonsaikitten.com/
The FBI even investigated this black humor site. The news story link.

http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story?id=7572

“(Francis Foley)

“…who decides what should be banned from the Internet. Where would we stop?� (Odile Dilone)

“Banning sites that discuss political or religious views that are contrary to the government's goals, would in effect, be Banning Censorship. The FBI in action of shutting down 20 antiwar sites:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/oct2004/inte-o13.shtml

� (Gabrielle Strassmann)