A chill in the blogosphere: The state, the internet and the struggle for narrative control in Singapore

The government of Singapore has always understood the importance of managing the public discourses in the interests of maintaining social control and furthering the political agenda of the ruling party. This has historically been done through the careful control of print media. Penalties for infringement of the rules governing publication have been met with harsh penalties. In recent years, a large number of blogs and websites that provide textual interventions into the discursive public space have emerged to present challenges to the dominant narrative. While alternative voices have increasingly appeared on information and communication technologies, at the same time official responses have become less strident and coercive. Although the Singapore government may still determine what can be said in the public sphere via the Internet, it seems that the forms of that control have become more subtle as the media of expression have become more sophisticated. The Internet has the potential to be used for the purposes of surveillance and control, but it can also afford the means of resistance.