Name: Report Launch – Political Hate Sites in Singapore: Flourishing without Repercussions
Start: 2023-07-08T09:30:00+07:00
End: 2023-07-08T21:30:00+07:00
Location: Palms Bistro

Singapore, a one-party dominated state, has regularly updated and passed new legislation that criminalises criticism of its public officials and policies, leaving only a narrow margin for expressing dissenting views within the established legal boundaries. As a result, the government can repress opposition voices through the tight policing of political expression both offline and online. This includes blocking, removing, and de-legitimising critical online content, as well as prosecuting content creators and distributors. This leads to the manipulation of the public narrative and fosters widespread self-censorship.

Despite these measures, there is an underbelly of critical voices that continue to occupy the extremely limited space allowed by the law. In the last few years, these voices have experienced an increase in targeted attacks and hate speech by pro-government hate sites and internet brigades. Yet, public officials and technology companies remain silent about these hate sites and the coordinated inauthentic behaviour of internet brigades. Meanwhile, current laws and content moderation policies to protect them remain inadequate and insufficient.

The report explains how hate sites and internet brigades seek to maliciously negate the criticism of public officials and policy in Singapore. Targets of hate sites include activists, bloggers, civil society organisations, independent media outlets and journalists, human rights lawyers, and opposition political parties and politicians.

To find out more, attend the report launch and discussion. Please find the details of the event below:

Day/Date: Saturday, 8 July 2023
Time: 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM (Singapore Time)
Venue: Palms Bistro, 60 Anson Rd, #01-02, Singapore 079914
Registration Form: https://forms.gle/E7w7EGv7f1kTQavP

Contact: lina@asiacentre.org

Asia Centre is a social enterprise that serves as a think-tank, convenes meetings and undertakes projects through collaborative partnerships.

It established its first centre in 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand whose activities focus on human rights issues in the region.

In 2018, Asia Centre established a second centre in Johor Bahru, Malaysia with a focus on arts and culture.

Asia Centre provides advisory and consultancy services for educational institutions, international organizations, non-profit organizations and other institutions in the private and public sector. It conducts research, publishes its findings, organises events and runs capacity building programmes.