Rules in real life must apply online: Yaacob

Internet users should define online code of conduct, says minister
By Matthias Chew, The Straits Times, 6 Apr 2012

THE freedom and flexibility to air your views online is welcomed, but the rules governing conduct in the real world must also apply online.

If a person knows it is unacceptable to criticise another's race or religion, his behaviour on the Internet must reflect that, said Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts Yaacob Ibrahim.

Dr Yaacob was speaking for the first time on the recent brouhaha over offensive posts made on social media that caused an outcry.

Last month, a Chinese undergraduate scholarship holder was disciplined by his university for making derogatory comments about Singaporeans in a blog post. A day earlier, a local polytechnic student posted an allegedly racist remark about an ethnic minority on Twitter, and it went viral.

'What we forget is the impact on social media is far greater than in personal interaction,' said Dr Yaacob on the sidelines of the launch of self-help group Mendaki's 30th anniversary celebrations.

While the Government will not depart from its light-touch approach to Internet regulation, Dr Yaacob said race, language and religion are areas in which 'hard boundaries must still hold', and there are laws to protect them. 'We only intervene in those areas where it impacts our social security or racial harmony,' he said.

He believes an Internet code of conduct is still necessary - something he had mooted during previous parliamentary sessions. But he reiterated that the onus is on Internet users here to define the contents, even as his ministry will supervise and guide the process of developing such a code.

'It is not something we will impose from the top. It is something that must come from the bottom and must be something the online community is comfortable with,' he said.

When asked about an incident earlier this week where Singaporeans panicked over online hoaxes of child kidnapping cases, Dr Yaacob advised social media users to exercise common sense.

'If you want to put content on the Internet... make sure that the content is verifiable and true, and that you do so not to raise alarm, but to create awareness,' he said, adding that his ministry will roll out programmes to promote information and media literacy to help netizens be more discerning.

He acknowledged that current laws do not cover hoaxes like the 'kidnapping' ones that were recently spread online.

'There are some areas where there is a bit of a lacuna. My sense is that we will evolve as we understand this beast better,' he said.