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Singapore - Singapore's move to tighten regulation of news Websites, already under fire from bloggers and human rights groups, has attracted criticism from an unexpected quarter - large internet firms with a big presence in the city-state who say the new rules will hurt the industry.
Web giants Facebook, eBay, Google and Yahoo! have said the revised rules "have negatively impacted Singapore's global image as an open and business-friendly country".
The comments, made in a letter to Singapore's minister of communications and information by the Asia Internet Coalition, an industry body, are the first sign that Singapore's success in wooing major players to its shores is not assured. Google, eBay, Facebook and Yahoo all have a major presence in the city-state.
Google said separately it was concerned about the long-term implications of the regulation - especially for local internet entrepreneurs who it said now faced greater uncertainty and legal risk.
In late May, Singapore said websites that regularly report on Singapore would have to be licensed and listed 10 news sites that would be affected, based on criteria such as having 50 000 unique visitors from Singapore each month.
Websites affected by the new licensing regime would have to put up a S$50 000 ($39 300) performance bond as well as take down within 24 hours any story that authorities deemed objectionable.
"Singapore aims to be the future, but this regulation looks a lot like the past," Google's Ann Lavin, director of public policy and government affairs, Southeast Asia, told Reuters.
The Media Development Authority (MDA) said the changes would make the rules governing news websites more consistent with those affecting newspapers and other traditional media platforms. But it has stressed there was no change in its content standards.
"The new licensing framework is not intended to clamp down on Internet freedom," an MDA spokesperson said in a written response to questions.
Growing sector
The Asia Internet Coalition was (AIC) set up in 2011 by Google, Facebook, Yahoo and eBay to lobby for free and open access to the Internet and promote e-commerce.
The Internet and related industries have become an important sector for Singapore, with revenues last year growing 23% to S$103bn ($81bn). The sector employs more than 144 000 people out of the city-state's 3.2 million workforce, according to government data.
"When you look at other countries in the region it's hard to see anyone immediately breathing down the neck of Singapore and Hong Kong," said John Ure, executive director of AIC. "But things can change. Five to 10 years is not a long time."
Singapore has attracted major internet companies to its shores in part because of its commitment to what it has called a "light touch" when it comes to policing the Web.
Yahoo's popular Singapore news site was the only foreign website among the 10 listed by the MDA, but critics fear the rules could be extended to cover other websites, including those critical of the government.
A senior official at the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) responsible for the ruling, Permanent Secretary Aubeck Kam, told a gathering of the Singapore Computer Society on Thursday that the rules would not cover commentary sites, and that the government had never ordered removal of content because it was critical of the government under existing regulations.
"Monsters under the bed"
The new rules will come under scrutiny later on Monday, with the opposition Workers' Party tabling questions such as how authorities would treat online news services catering to Singapore's large financial sector and individual Facebook pages with large followings.
A Yahoo spokesperson said it had no official comment on the regulation but that the AIC's position was "broadly consistent with ours".
Rights groups have joined local bloggers in criticising the move. Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, said that major internet companies adding their voice should give Singapore serious pause about its approach.
The government, "like a little boy in a dark bedroom, imagines that every bump in the night means there are monsters under the bed ready to pounce on Singapore's much vaunted social stability", he said.
Ure said the coalition's members had been unnerved by the announcement coming "out of the blue" at a time when it had been holding discussions with the Singapore government on several Internet-related issues.
The regulations, he said, "muddied the waters" and that "anything that is seen to be a hindrance to the free flow of content and data" was of concern to his members.
"It's particularly concerning to the AIC that Singapore should appear to be giving the wrong signal, and countries around the region that are far less open and liberal might take their cue from Singapore," he said.
Singapore has defended the revision to its regulations, and professed surprise at the opposition.
Kam, the MCI official, said that such concerns would likely be accommodated via consultations with the 10 websites over the wording of the licences. "There is no need to read signals because we are communicating what we think," he told Ure during a question and answer session at the computer users' gathering.
Lobby group Reporters Without Borders, in its latest report, ranked Singapore 149th globally in terms of press freedom, down 14 places from 2012 and below many of its neighbours.
In 2011, the city-state's tiny opposition made big gains against the long-ruling People's Action Party in a parliamentary election, partly by using social media such as Facebook and YouTube to reach voters.
