sounds rike the EDMW of the early days
snipe and post zeh zehs
19 October 1999, JCGirls.com | Calibrated Coercion in Singapore
:crazy:
snipe and post zeh zehs
19 October 1999, JCGirls.com | Calibrated Coercion in Singapore
Quote:
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19 October 1999, JCGirls.com 10 08 2006 a) Involved Parties: JCGirls (currently SgGirls), Singnet and the general public. b) Website/URL: There are a few URLs as the site has shifted whenever it came under the sanctions of their web providers: jcgirls.n3.net, jcgirls.cjb.net, http://www.jcgirls.com. Its latest incarnation is the popular SG Girls which is hosted in the United States. c) Group/individual based overseas/locally?: Run by two local students, JCGirls is a photo website and chatroom which features voyeuristic shots of local women at Orchard Road. d) Type of website (Religious Groups, Political sites, Sexual Minorities, Personal homepages, etc.): Photo website and chatroom. e) Description of catalytic event: JCGirls, a website set up by two local students in September 1999, is a personal homepage designed with the eventual intention of making money through sponsorship and advertising. Besides candid style photographs of women in Orchard Road, there is a chatroom and articles on gender relations. While the site (www. jcgirls.n3.net) is clearly not pornographic and hence not illegal, the nature of some of the pictures first posted, together with their suggestive captions, have sparked debate on the issue of privacy. The sites critics have claimed that it removes their freedom to walk on the streets without fearing that their picture will be taken and published, while its supporters see JCGirls as both harmless and amusing. Following complaints from Internet users, SingNet removed the site from its servers. But the two teenagers moved their site. They got a host called s1web.com to provide its servers instead. Its new site is stripped of the more controversial photographs although the students still use SingNet as their service provider. Another internet service provider, Pacific Internet, said that it would only remove content deemed to be undesirable by their subscribers, only under the advice of the SBA: We are not in the position to police non-proprietary website content nor make moral decisions on what is desirable or undesirable. That moral authority belongs to regulatory agencies like the Singapore Broadcasting Authority. In a report by the Straits Times (dated 19 October 1999), the Singapore Broadcasting Authority said that JCGirls does not contain content that is in breach of the Internet Code of Practice and that the SBA said its framework for the Internet emphasises public education and industry self-regulation. This is in line with its light-touch regulatory framework. f) Type of action taken by government (soft/heavy): No intervention as the SBA did not view JCGirls as having breached the Internet Code of Practice. Instead, and interestingly, it has allowed the Internet Service Providers substantial discretion in deciding whether to censure the content from their servers. g) Legislations used: None. h) Is the action initiated by government/ Government reacting to report by public?: Initiated by the public to the Internet Service Providers. i) Reaction (how the group/person reacted to government action): The owners shifted the site a few times and also made adjustments to their content (featuring less provocative photos). j) Public response (intensity of public outcry): Substantial. Widely discussed in the public sphere and online as a breach of personal privacy and an instance of web voyeurism. k) Resolution: The furore over the privacy issues died down substantially over the months. JCGirls eventually changed its name to SgGirls (sgGirls.com :: Oriental and Beautiful) and its popularity soared over the next 5 years with substantial membership and member submitted pictures. Ownership still falls under the Singaporean student(s) that started the JCGirls webpage. SgGirls came under media spotlight again in 2005 for another provocative picture. |