FC: Responses to UN Internet tax and regulation summit

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 18:16:18 +0800
From: Ang Peng Hwa <angpenghwa () pacific net sg>
To: declan () well com
CC: politech () vorlon mit edu
Subject: Re: FC: UN summit in Paris next week on Internet taxing & regulation
:
:
:
:

Declan,

Just to set the record straight on one item:

Declan McCullagh wrote:

> [This UNESCO confab would be hysterical if the folks weren't actually
serious.
> Read on for excerpts.]

> In September 1996, seven member countries of the
>   Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Singapore,
>   Viet-Nam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand)
>   decided to collectively regulate communications on the internet in order
>   in particular to prevent pornography.

I presented a paper at the meeting along with then chair of the Australian
Broadcasting Authority. I said then that regulation was
cultural--suggesting in
diplomatese that it would be difficult if not impossible to arrive at a common
stance as culture is relative.

That was what happened: there was no common stance. The Philippines were
concerned
with child porno (I actually told them that the second-most effective way
would be
to shut down the airport; the most effective way is to go after the
locals--who do
not use the Internet--because child-porn is a domestic, not international,
industry.) The Thais were concerned with freedom of expression. Some of the
others
were unconcerned--they had other matters to worry about.

I'm not sure how the reports have come about that ASEAN has a common stance on
Internet regulation. There was a completely erroneous report out of Reuters
(yes,
that otherwise respectable British company) reporting on the common stance.

I'm not being paid by the authorities to send the above email. And I
certainly do
not want to go on less I come across as too shrill. But I thought you would
want
the record set straight.

Regards,
Peng Hwa ANG
(FWIW, of the School of Communication Studies, Nanyang Technological
University,
Singapore)

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Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 11:42:57 +0800
From: Siew Kum Hong/Xiao Jinhong <limabean () pobox org sg>
Organization: The Singapore Bean Asylum
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: UN summit in Paris next week on Internet taxing & regulation
References: <4.0.2.19991124122654.00bba920 () mail well com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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X-UIDL: 3786dd830b24e3b6c23368be501aed78

Hi Declan. A short note from someone with first-hand experience on
Singapore's Net regulation policies. This particular sentence (from the
preparatory note) is somewhat deceptive.

>    ISPs are not required to monitor the Internet or its users and
>    they only need to limit public access to hundred mass impact
>    pornographic sites identified by SBA. 

While commercial ISPs offer family-friendly services running filtering
software as an alternative to full-access services with approx. 100
sites prohibited (eg. www.playboy.com), it seems that there may be a
growing tendency from other access providers to install commercial
filtering software. For example, I access the Net via the National
University of Singapore, which is presently running a trial using a
commercial filtering software to ban access to more than the 100
SBA-listed sites. This of course results in the usual problems with
filtering software. The software prohibits access to attrition.org and
anonymizer.com, although users can complain about erroneous filtering.

So once again, self-regulation shows itself to be a code-word for
self-censorship.

-- 
xjh                     <limabean () pobox org sg>
"Rock and roll is here to stay      _Thirteen_
Come inside where it's okay"       by Big Star

The Singapore Bean Asylum: http://i.am/limabean

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