Internet rules are
necessary to restrain "pack behaviour" in social media and ensure
civility between users, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
said in remarks released Wednesday.
Speaking at a
university forum late Tuesday, Lee said social media raised the
risk of an overreaction from the public when contentious incidents
occur in the ethnically diverse city-state, with "unrestrained,
anonymous viciousness".
Lee, who has
nearly 260,000 Facebook followers, referred to several local
incidents that have sparked off unbridled web outrage, including
derogatory comments against Singaporeans posted on social media by
British expatriate Anton Casey last week.
"Each one issue
can cause a spark. Because of social media it becomes harder to
settle such problems quietly and we risk having an overreaction,"
Lee told students at the Nanyang Technological University.
A video of his
speech was posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday.
"It becomes like
pack behaviour. You scold, you swear, you curse. All the wrong
instincts get fed and in a group, there's a certain group dynamic
and it is like a pack of hounds hunting, which is bad," he
said.
"That by the way
is also why we need rules in cyberspace..in human engagement you
must have some basis on what is out of bounds, what we will comply
with, what is acceptable, and what is not."
Lee said Internet
users in the city-state had the right to repudiate and condemn
unacceptable acts.
"But do not lower
ourselves to that same level to behave in a way which really makes
us all so ashamed of ourselves," he said.
British wealth
adviser Casey was forced to temporarily leave Singapore for
Australia last week after he claimed that he received "threats"
following his Facebook posts disparaging Singaporean public
transport commuters as "poor people".
The
Porsche-driving permanent resident, his Singaporean beauty queen
wife and five-year-old son were subject to virulent anti-foreigner
abuse on social media after the posts went viral last Tuesday.
Responding to a
question from a student who raised concerns about a surge of
expatriates in recent years, Lee said the move was necessary
because the economy has grown.
Singapore is
highly dependent on foreign labour. Out of its total population of
5.4 million, only 3.84 million are citizens and permanent
residents.
