Government continues website ban in Singapore

The Censorship Review Committee (CRC) had recommended that the ban be replaced with a filtering service. But the Government points to the findings of a CRC survey, in which 67 per cent of respondents supported the ban’s retention, with 38 per cent wanting to include more sites under the ban.

Acting minister for information and the arts Lui Tuck Yew acknowledged that tech-savvy internet users would be able to circumvent the ban, “But we will retain it, not so much for its functional usefulness, rather as a symbolic statement of our society's values.

It serves as a reminder that there is a significant body of material on the internet that is unsavoury and unedifying," he said.

The ban covers pornographic websites, as well as sites which incite racial and religious intolerance, and which promote terrorism and extremism.

The Government will also direct internet service providers (ISPs) to offer opt-in internet filters.