Singapore citizens that want to roam free and unfettered on the Information Superhighway are going to have to be pretty resourceful and to run up big phone bills to an overseas access provider. Next month, all three Internet access providers in Singapore, Pacific Internet, SingNet and CyberWay, will have to ensure that all their subscribers are linked to new local proxy servers that will block access to all sites the Singapore government deems objectionable. Proxy servers store copies of frequently-accessed material locally, and in the Singapore system will check a request for access to an Internet site against a list of banned ones, and bar access if it is on the list. Grounds for banning will include pornography, hate literature and criminal activities, and access to some religious and political sites may be banned. Singapore has about 100,000 Web subscribers.
