Lee acknowledged that there was a grey area with regard to the Internet, where private exchanges could quickly become public ones, and the policing of online violators could be tricky.
Nonetheless, he hoped the spirit and principle of the “cooling-off” period would be upheld by Internet users.
The websites of the political parties, however, will be bound by the new rules.
“I can’t control several million videos on YouTube. But your website, what you are putting out in your own name, I think that should end on the day before cooling-off day,” said Lee.
Reading the last statement from Lee Hsien Loong, it seems that all blogs and forums are bound by this new ruling, beside political parties' websites. Therefore socio-political websites like Theonlinecitizen will have to comply, including recognizable blogs like yawningbread, mrwang, etc., and locally hosted forums like HWZ, VRzone. However, it will have limited impact on anonymous websites like Temasek Review, and overseas hosted forums like Sammyboy and 3in1Kopitiam. What the govt may do is have the 2 ISPs restrict the accessibility to these sites during that 24 hours period. Of course one can get around it through anonymous proxy, but many internet users are still unaware of such services. However in spite of this, ultimately sites like Temasek Review, Sammyboy etc will have much to gain from this new ruling during the "blackout" period.
Nonetheless, he hoped the spirit and principle of the “cooling-off” period would be upheld by Internet users.
The websites of the political parties, however, will be bound by the new rules.
“I can’t control several million videos on YouTube. But your website, what you are putting out in your own name, I think that should end on the day before cooling-off day,” said Lee.
Reading the last statement from Lee Hsien Loong, it seems that all blogs and forums are bound by this new ruling, beside political parties' websites. Therefore socio-political websites like Theonlinecitizen will have to comply, including recognizable blogs like yawningbread, mrwang, etc., and locally hosted forums like HWZ, VRzone. However, it will have limited impact on anonymous websites like Temasek Review, and overseas hosted forums like Sammyboy and 3in1Kopitiam. What the govt may do is have the 2 ISPs restrict the accessibility to these sites during that 24 hours period. Of course one can get around it through anonymous proxy, but many internet users are still unaware of such services. However in spite of this, ultimately sites like Temasek Review, Sammyboy etc will have much to gain from this new ruling during the "blackout" period.
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