Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 251 posts

Re: Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

#111

Post by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC »

paulmooreparks wrote: post #97
robomartin wrote: post #47

I have a lateral question about Singapore. Everything I have read about the country says that it is one of the best in the world for business and, in particular, startups. Yet some of the commentary here leads me to believe there's a dark side to the reality of this nation. Anyone with first hand knowledge care to comment on this? I am puzzled because it so happens we might have to do some business in Singapore and a…

I've been living and working in Singapore for two years now, coming from the United States. I'm a libertarian who finds politics and economics in the US to be horribly broken, and while in principle I don't agree with authoritarianism or planned economies, I'm also of the mind that one cannot apply a single concept of government to every culture. That's a colonial mindset. America's liberal tradition came from many,…

[flagged]

Re: Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

#112

Post by raxxorrax »

irjustin wrote: post #99
RavlaAlvar wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely asking. Do most of the population believe Singapore’s authoritarian government would stay benevolent??

As an US expat living in SG, I would say yes. Singapore is the first place where I actually began to question whether democracy was the absolute way. Democracy was how I was raised. Overall, I still believe it is the way long term, but what can you do when you have a single, unified government that cares for its people is simply amazing. Safest in the world, hands down. This can be felt in every day life. I hold tabl…

> My kid can run/play freely and I only worry about her running into traffic.

To be fair, that is possible in a lot of countries, I would have doubts to do that in America though. And not only because of crime.

> I actually began to question whether democracy was the absolute way.

There are several democratic countries that beat Singapore in regards to safety. So I believe this to be flawed reasoning. It is a safe country, but not exceptionally so.

edit: Disregarding the fact that Singapore is officially a democracy. A benevolent dictatorship would probably look more like the Gadaffi regime. Economic success in such a dictatorship is probably mandatory.

Re: Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

#113

Post by ylyn »

trevyn wrote: post #94
choonway wrote: post #86

My prediction is that Facebook is going to resort to "this content is banned in your country" route. Only way to access this would be through VPN... if everybody in the country uses VPN, they govt would probably start copying the Great firewall of China.

It’s getting there: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Singa...

The internet "censorship" in SG has been around for a long time, and it hasn't really changed. It's a symbolic block that ISPs sometimes forget to even implement.

Re: Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

#114

Post by flomble »

qwtel wrote: post #95
diveanon wrote: post #53

Why am I not surprised that it is Singapore doing this. That country is an authoritarian nanny state disguised as Disney Land. I have visited many times and have lots of friends there. Nobody cares about freedom of the press because they are well paid and comfortable. They have truly figured out how to placate the masses.

> Nobody cares about freedom of the press because they are well paid and comfortable that's because freedom of press and similar rights are a uniquely western phenomenon that are --- despite what droves of its proponents will tell you --- derived from christian values that didn't and don't exist anywhere else. Many in the broader region don't care about freedom of press, while also being poorly paid and uncomfortable…

> freedom of press and similar rights are a uniquely western phenomenon that are ... derived from christian values

This is incorrect. Europe is quite unique in that since the advent of Christianity there has always existed a church separate from the state acting as a counterbalance thereto, and offering an alternative foundation of moral authority. Despite this, brutal suppression of all dissent and criticism of the political structure was almost always supported by the Church, which generally allied itself with dominant regimes (i.e. feudal rulers).

It wasn't until the flurry of neoclassicist-inspired philosophising of the Enlightenment and the emergence of monied elites in a position to pressure the state to grant them rights that said rights were slowly granted. They often couched their arguments in terms of Christian doctrine, but this is just the incidental result of the dominance of the Christian religion in society at that time.

Re: Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

#115

Post by OldManAndTheCpp »

raxxorrax wrote: post #112
irjustin wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an US expat living in SG, I would say yes. Singapore is the first place where I actually began to question whether democracy was the absolute way. Democracy was how I was raised. Overall, I still believe it is the way long term, but what can you do when you have a single, unified government that cares for its people is simply amazing. Safest in the world, hands down. This can be felt in every day life. I hold tabl…

> My kid can run/play freely and I only worry about her running into traffic. To be fair, that is possible in a lot of countries, I would have doubts to do that in America though. And not only because of crime. > I actually began to question whether democracy was the absolute way. There are several democratic countries that beat Singapore in regards to safety. So I believe this to be flawed reasoning. It is a safe co…

In the US, you can have your kid run and play outside if you live in a suburb, in fact a better life for their children is what pushes many families to move to the suburbs in the first place.

Re: Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

#116

Post by tdsamardzhiev »

_2d30 wrote: post #51
tdsamardzhiev wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one does not simply sue a military dictatorship

I'm not sure Singapore's government falls under a military dictatorship by any means. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Singapore

I'll counter your wikipedia link with one of my own.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regimes

Not seeking to discredit the ruling party. What they've done with Singapore is nothing short of a miracle. But the fact is that they're still backed up by a ridiculously strong army, and the opposition party exists just so they can say there is one (but is frequently bullied regardless).

Re: Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

#117

Post by TomMarius »

distances wrote: post #103
irjustin wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an US expat living in SG, I would say yes. Singapore is the first place where I actually began to question whether democracy was the absolute way. Democracy was how I was raised. Overall, I still believe it is the way long term, but what can you do when you have a single, unified government that cares for its people is simply amazing. Safest in the world, hands down. This can be felt in every day life. I hold tabl…

Is the safety and honesty embedded in the culture now? That's how Nordic countries keep things straight -- not by police force, and they're indeed some of the leanest police forces in the world. I'm basically wondering if you could change Singapore to a Nordic style democracy and keep the upsides you speak of just by the force of culture?

What are the real, practical differences between Nordic style democracy and parliamentary democracy that is in central European countries?

Re: Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

#118

Post by mac01021 »

irjustin wrote: post #99
RavlaAlvar wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely asking. Do most of the population believe Singapore’s authoritarian government would stay benevolent??

As an US expat living in SG, I would say yes. Singapore is the first place where I actually began to question whether democracy was the absolute way. Democracy was how I was raised. Overall, I still believe it is the way long term, but what can you do when you have a single, unified government that cares for its people is simply amazing. Safest in the world, hands down. This can be felt in every day life. I hold tabl…

All the examples of safety that you provide describe my experience in the US too, FWIW.

Re: Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

#119

Post by tdsamardzhiev »

9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #109
kbcool wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the dictatorship controls the military you can pretty safely say they're a military dictatorship.

No, it's a military dictatorship when the military controls the country, which is fairly obviously not the case in Singapore.

Not needing to exercise one's power =/= not being in control of things.

Re: Singapore tells Facebook to correct post under new fake news law

#120

Post by bkor »

irjustin wrote: post #99
RavlaAlvar wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely asking. Do most of the population believe Singapore’s authoritarian government would stay benevolent??

As an US expat living in SG, I would say yes. Singapore is the first place where I actually began to question whether democracy was the absolute way. Democracy was how I was raised. Overall, I still believe it is the way long term, but what can you do when you have a single, unified government that cares for its people is simply amazing. Safest in the world, hands down. This can be felt in every day life. I hold tabl…

> Safest in the world, hands down.

Any figures to back that up? It's said that nothing gets stolen in Singapore, until you speak to Singaporeans. Bikes still get stolen for instance. The city seems super clean, but mainly because low paid workers clean the city really often. If a Singaporean visits another country you'll notice that they're used to the city being cleaned often, not so much that they're behaving differently.

Your "Hawker Centers" have people in their 70s bent forward cleaning up tables to some earn money. Those centers are cheap, but why does the benevolent government not care for those people?

Further, Singapore is pretty much a city, nothing more. Being isolated from any other country helps a lot too.

I think you too easily dismiss the "dark sides".

> My kid can run/play freely and I only worry about her running into traffic.

This is the same as a lot of other countries.

IMO the biggest benefit of Singapore is being a small city on pretty much an island.

Post reply on HN