I Never Knew Websites Were Banned in Singapore

Call me an ignoramous. Go ahead. I feel quite ignorant and positively dumb, after just discovering this today. I didn’t know certain websites were banned in Singapore, till I came across this article on Yahoo Singapore which talks about the possibility of having the internet unrestricted, which to me sounds like a good thing. I always thought only workplaces banned certain websites like FaceBook or Windows Messenger. Anyway they mentioned Playboy is one of the websites restricted so I typed in the address and came to this page. It was quite a shocker to me. Suddenly I didn’t feel as free as I did before.

On another note, isn’t this totally counterproductive? Why ban playboy, when you complain that Singaporeans are repressed, asexual and are not having enough babies.

This also makes me wonder. What other websites are banned? Anyone know?

The website which you are trying to access is restricted by the Media Development Authority (MDA).
Find out more information on MDA regulations.

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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8 Responses to I Never Knew Websites Were Banned in Singapore

  1. mct88 says:

    Woah, I didn’t know that either!

  2. Pingback: Daily SG: 16 Sep 2010 « The Singapore Daily

  3. Crystal says:

    There are porn filters, but they’re pretty pathetic. You can easily access most porn…we use a web based streamer to get around the lack of porn in Singapore. They also fail to block the vast majority of sex blogger’s sites.

    My understanding is that they also make a point of banning critical speech of the government…if you wrote a blog on all the things that SG does wrong, it might get you banned once you fell onto someone’s radar.

    The thing about the internet is that it’s very difficult to restrict. For example, you can’t access Hulu (an American website that streams US tv) directly from SG. But if you know what you’re doing, you can access an American server so that Hulu thinks you’re logging on from the US (one of the many reasons we kept a network up and running at my in-law’s home).

    Other bans aren’t exactly bans, directly. I own a Kindle. However, it would be a useless piece of plastic if my Amazon account weren’t related back to a US address and credit card. When I tried to find a book on kindle here when we first moved, none of them were available. But once I logged in with my american account, I had full access and can purchase what I want with no issues…I jsut have to download to my laptop and then move to my kindle rather than downloading wirelessly. The same is true of iTunes…there’s a lot of content banned in SG, but I get around it by using my US login, US address and US credit card.

    • bookjunkie says:

      This is really interesting…thanks for widening my perspective! There’s loads I’m learning that I didn’t know before.

      About getting banned…that’s why I never comment about politics too much. Don’t wanna get into trouble!

  4. @ Crystal ~ I’m an American living in Italy and I can’t get Hulu or Pandora and some You Tube videos. I am often told it is due to my region.

    I’d appreciate any advice on how I could get those. Interesting topic. Also I heard China has restrictions to content. For example if you do a google search on Tianamen (sp?) square in China from Google China, you’ll see different pictures than you would see on Google.com. That’s just what I’ve read. Thanks for your information.

    Julie

    • Crystal says:

      So the way we do it is that we have a network set up at my in-laws (my husband’s parents) house in the US. I’m not the computer geek, but my understanding is that we log into that network and then it looks like we’re logging into HULU from a US IP address. It does slow it down, and my husband has to do it for me, but I know it’s doable (if you can’t set up a network, you might be able to get network permissions on a friend’s home network in the US and do it that way.

      I’m sorry I can’t be of more help there–my husband is a computer programmer and he does all our networking stuff.

  5. 365days2play says:

    I didn’t know that either! And of course, I had to just go to the Playboy website to check it out while I am still in Australia! Not that I would want to go there, but yeah, why are they restricting our freedom to access? check out Temasek Review, it seems pretty critical of the SG government, but isn’t banned.

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