Telegram’s hands-off approach to content faces a reckoning

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The recent arrest of Telegram founder and chief executive officer Pavel Durov at Le Bourget airport near Paris

ultra-lax approach to oversight and growing concern about Telegram’s role in enabling criminal activity. The charges are extensive and serious, covering Telegram’s complicity in the distribution of child sexual-abuse material (CSAM), drug trafficking and money laundering.

Mr Durov’s arrest should also be taken as a sign that the “no consequences” era for social media is fading as governments push to make companies more accountable for what happens on their apps.

While its peers invest heavily in content moderation and cooperate with law enforcement, Telegram has a minimal-intervention policy that has contributed to its low operational costs. Mr Durov once told the Financial Times that each Telegram user cost the company just 70 US cents a year to support.

During the recent UK riots, calls to violence proliferated on the platform even though they broke the app’s rules. 

Telegram has proudly maintained a stance of non-cooperation. In its FAQs, the company states “to this day, we have disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments”. Now, in response to the arrest, Telegram has said it’s “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform. 

Mr Musk and other critics may argue that his arrest threatens free speech, but Telegram’s hands-off approach to much of the activity on its platform doesn’t grant it freedom from consequences. The digital world requires as much governance as the physical one, and when a platform becomes a tool for widespread criminal activity, turning a blind eye isn’t a defence of liberty but a dereliction of duty.

Qn: ‘The mass media today has focused too much on profits, and not enough on responsibility.’ Is this a fair comment? (DHS Prelim 2022)

Why are letters on product labels, menus so tiny? It’s time Singapore businesses embraced our seniors

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Note how the ending echoes the opening, a technique often used in the compre passages....

Singapore became an aged society in 2017, and is set to attain “super-aged” status in 2026. By 2030, one in four citizens will be aged 65 and above, up from one in six now. With our excellent healthcare system, we may live longer.

As it is, Singapore aspires to become a Blue Zone 3.0. Blue Zones are places with the healthiest, longest living populations, where people may live to 100 and beyond.

At the same time, our resident total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped below 1.

The post-65 of today and tomorrow are very different from the preceding generations. Many are better-educated, have retirement savings, and will spend on businesses who empathise with them.

According to Ageing Asia Alliance, an Asia-Pacific industry alliance on the business of ageing, Singapore was ranked as the country with the biggest silver economy potential in terms of the capacity of the ageing population to spend, or be supported by their children. In the Asia-Pacific region, the silver economy market is projected to be worth US$4.6 trillion ($6 trillion) by 2025, catering to 600 million seniors above 60. The silver sector is slated to be a US$72.4 billion market in Singapore by 2025.

Enterprise Singapore shared some market opportunities for local firms to tap the silver dollar: telemedicine, health tech, elderly nutrition and assisted living. 

It is not a sunset but a sunrise industry...Catering to the post-65 is not just a localised business, she added. Singapore can be a tourist hub for older tourists too. After all, it is a safe country with an excellent healthcare system.

more are catering to the silver market. For example, Digital Gastronomy, an SUTD start-up specialising in 3D-printed food technology, provides feeding solutions to seniors with swallowing difficulties by 3D-printing pureed meals that are safe, healthy and visually appealing. It is developing a food printer that can be integrated into the kitchens of hospitals and nursing homes to produce soft meals at a faster speed compared to commercial food printers that are currently available. 

Qn: Assess the extent to which different age groups in your society are valued equally. (Cam. 2022)

KL sinkhole: Grim mood, shuttered shops as search continues for victim

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I’m also very angry with the fake news about this going viral; it’s driving more customers away,” said the manager of Little India Jewellers. He was referring to an image of Kuala Lumpur sitting atop a giant limestone cave that has gone viral. That image followed claims about a study purportedly conducted by a so-called geologist, Professor Sarah Jamal, from Universiti Malaya. But the university said in a statement on Aug 26 that no such academic works there, and that there was no geologist by that name in the Board of Geologists Malaysia.

Qn: Is regulation of the press desirable? (Cam. 2017)

Fine for woman who lied about miscarriage at KKH and Wake Up, Singapore founder who ran the story

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Good local example on fake news online....

Qn: Is news today reliable? (Cam. 2021)

Time to take a hard look at curbing consumerism

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Huge potential for clean energy held up by slow integration of South-east Asian grids

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Politics and zero-sum thinking are getting in the way. 

Hydropower plants, for example, have been known to displace large communities and block the movement of fish and nourishing sediment in waterways.

The Asean grid, while smoothing the way for multilateral clean power trade, could either improve or worsen the lives of communities near the source of such electricity.

Qn: ‘Fossil fuels should no longer have a part in the production of energy.’ Discuss. (Cam. 2023)

When will this stop?’: India’s women demand freedom and safety after yet another rape and murder

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The current legal framework is sufficient to control violence against women, she said, as long as it is supported by reliable police procedures, like “serious inquiry, protection of witnesses, safeguarding the crime site and protecting the evidence”.

what needs fixing is “not the severity of punishment, but the surety of punishment”.

More S’poreans exercising, getting their shots; fewer smoking in 2023: National Population Health Survey

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War on salt, sauces, instant noodles, cooking oil: These will have A to D grades like beverages

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Drinks that exceed a threshold of sweetness are graded C and D, and there are also prohibitions on advertising such beverages that are grade D. As a result of the labelling and advertising restrictions, Singaporeans are eating less sugar now.

Many producers have reformulated their beverages to... suit the newly evolved taste. Labelling, I believe, has shaped the palate of the population with regard to sugar...“So, last year, over two-thirds of pre-packaged beverages in the market were graded A and B, up from less than one-third five years ago

extending Nutri-Grade labelling and advertising prohibitions to the four product groups – pre-packed salt, sauces and seasonings, instant noodles and cooking oil – the major culprits when it comes to the salt and saturated fat that people consume.

Singapore already has the Healthier Choice symbols for food. ...However, these are voluntary labels and do not help consumers to identify the products that may be graded C and D under Nutri-Grade labelling.

labelling for instant noodles will help to nudge food manufacturers to reformulate their products to make them healthier. Currently, less than 5 per cent of instant noodles are healthier choices.

A year without shopping: Young Singaporeans embrace TikTok’s ‘underconsumption core’ trend

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Qn: 'Social media plays a great role in shaping youth culture.' Do you agree?

Direct School Admission must be accessible to all students: Chan Chun Sing

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Today, there are many people who can apply for DSA to go to schools, and many of them tend to come from families who are more well-resourced

These comments come after allegations about a basketball coach taking money to secure pupils’ admissions into secondary schools came to light in July. It was reported then that the coach had allegedly helped children to get into schools like Anglo-Chinese Junior College and Dunman High School for a fee of at least $45,000.

Introduced in 2004, DSA provides a pathway for Primary 6 pupils to gain early admission to the secondary school of their choice, using non-academic talents, such as in sports and the arts, before sitting the Primary School Leaving Examination.

For qns on meritocracy, equality, and different kinds of success.....

No room for dream hoarding in the new Singapore Dream

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For qns on meritocracy.....

In praise of the weird

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Trump shares doctored images showing Taylor Swift support

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The new Singaporean Marvel X-Men mutant and Singapore’s nerdy reputation

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Singapore has laws and policies designed to prevent situations like UK riots: Shanmugam

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disinformation and hate speech were among causes of the riots that followed a July 29 stabbing in which three girls were killed. Police arrested a 17-year-old male, and false information circulated on social media that the suspect was an Islamist migrant, which led to violent anti-Muslim protests in Southport the following day and an attempt to attack the town’s mosque....public figures and online influencers added fuel to the fire, stoking anti-immigrant and xenophobic sentiments, sparking the worst riots in 13 years.

while free speech is important in Singapore, there is little tolerance for fake speech, racial or religious hate speech, or speech that incites violence, particularly if it impacts law and order.

In reply to some who have asked why Singapore does not allow protests about the Palestine cause, he said protests would, in turn, have to be allowed for other causes – for example, the situation in Ukraine, against China relating to the Uighurs, or on domestic issues, including racial issues.

Qn. ‘In a free society, there should be no restrictions on freedom of speech.’ Discuss. (Cam. 2020)

Why China’s Olympic stars are hiding from fans

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Fan groups spend lavishly on products endorsed by their idols, deploy bots to ensure their favourites stay atop social media trending lists and even mount harassment campaigns against other stars and their supporters. Some fans stalk their idols and sell their photos or personal information.

At first, the obsession was directed mostly at actors and musicians. But in recent years, it has turned to athletes too.

A commentary in People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, accused some fans of “losing their rationality”.

fans, many of them young, are lonely and seeking community...China’s rapid economic development and urbanisation had created a “new generation of atomised individuals”...“In the internet era...fan culture allows them to “fill the void”.

Harmony in the cross hairs: Lessons for Singapore from the UK riots

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a Good Read on local context....

For decades, Singapore has been proactive in preventing the formation of racial enclaves through policies like the Ethnic Integration Policy in public housing and efforts to promote multiracialism in schools.

Furthermore, discussions around nationality and citizenship here are all too often conflated with race, particularly in the context of Chinese nationals from mainland China or Indian nationals from India. This conflation feeds xenophobic sentiments that blur the lines between legitimate concerns over immigration and outright racism.

Legislative muscle also plays a role in discouraging nefarious actors from sowing discord; Singapore’s strict laws regulating public gatherings and free speech have been instrumental in maintaining social order.

This discerning approach to freedom of expression and assembly will seem restrictive to some, but it serves as a strategic check against the kind of inflammatory rhetoric that has stoked tensions elsewhere.

Confrontations on public transport highlight generational tensions in China, say analysts

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 a growing sense of anxiety among Chinese youth over dimming economic prospects and a shift away from traditional values have resulted in a particularly taut relationship between China’s old and young

The latter had greater financial security during China’s most prosperous years, post-1980s till the 2000s. Then annual gross domestic product growth began to fall to the single digits, down from the double-digit yearly expansion. Public benefits were better then as well, with older Chinese getting apartments for free from the government, and the cost of living was lower.

Today’s young Chinese are the most educated in the nation’s history, with a record 11.79 million university graduates this year.

Privacy is another concept that some older Chinese, who are used to communal living, struggle with, analysts said. ...It’s hard to talk to older Chinese about boundaries and privacy because these concepts did not really exist during their time.

Banksy lifts curtain on London animal mural series

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For issues relating to art and censorship. 

Interesting comparison with the recent Samsui Woman mural controversy in Singapore.

Also, if it takes place in Singapore, Banksy's works may be regarded as vandalism, esp if u recall the example of the 'sticker lady' (see HERE)

Why taking on ultra-processed foods is like the battle against Big Tobacco

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the dietary shift towards these convenience foods was contributing to a rise in obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases 

such foods have been found to worsen social inequities. Ultra-processed foods often form a significant portion of the diet for lower socio-economic groups, offering calories at a lower cost but lacking essential nutrition. The long shelf-life and convenience of such foods present accessible solutions to those with limited financial resources.

Marketing campaigns target vulnerable populations, including children and adolescents, through television advertisements, online platforms, and promotional tie-ins with popular media and celebrities.

Qn: Eating has never been more dangerous. Discuss.

Like the Olympics, education is not always about winning

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As Pierre de Coubertin, the French father of the modern Olympics, said: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”

A successful graduate is more than a person who masters a few disciplines. A successful graduate has also learnt how to work in teams; can appreciate the value of differences in culture, ethnicity and religion; has built up useful networks; and may have improved skills in leadership and organisation through the experience of co-curricular activities, among other things. 

Qns: 

1. Winning is all that matters in international sporting events. Do you agree? (JPJC 2024 J1 WA)

2. ‘In our pursuit of academic success, we have forgotten the true aims of education.’ How true is this of your society? (JPJC Prelim 2023)

About one in two S’porean youth has problematic smartphone use: IMH study

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Note useful stats....: 1 in 2 in title above....

Problems include physical discomfort – pain in the wrists or back of the neck from prolonged use of smartphones – or if users miss work or are unable to concentrate during lessons due to smartphone use.

youth are more dependent on smartphones for socialisation purposes, and generally have lower self-control.

It’s just the ease of access. It’s the internet in your pocket, literally.

According to the Infocomm Media Development Authority, 97 per cent of local residents aged 18 and above own a smartphone. The number of smartphone users in Singapore was about 5.57 million in 2022.

Given the association with symptoms of depression, anxiety and insomnia, they said it is not surprising that problematic smartphone use was linked to lower positive mental health

Qn: Assess the view that children should be banned from using social media. (NYJC J1 WA 2024)

The flip side of sporting success

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Relate to why few are willing to take up sport full time....

An athletic career is typically short-lived. A single injury can end it prematurely, as has happened with, for example, China’s champion hurdler Liu Xiang, the gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Games, who was forced to retire at the age of 31 because of an injured Achilles tendon

Tan Howe Liang, who won Singapore’s first Olympic medal (a silver), in weightlifting at the 1960 Rome Olympics, later worked as a taxi driver, a cleaner and then a gym supervisor, taking home a salary of about $1,000 a month in addition to a $390 monthly allowance from the People’s Association. 

Several other Chinese athletes in unglamorous sports such as weightlifting and the shot put, who won medals, and many more who didn’t, ended up doing menial jobs.

Qn: To what extent is sporting achievement given adequate recognition in your society? (Cam. 2018)

South Korea boils in summer heat that may set new records

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Good opening BANG for intro to convey urgency and severity of climate issues:

Steam, sizzle, scorch and boil. As South Korea swelters under summer heat that looks set to break records, newspaper headlines are using words mostly reserved for describing high-heat culinary techniques. “The nation sizzles on a rest day, steaming in cauldron heat,” said one on Aug 4. Another noted: “Nation continues to scorch as heatwave and tropical nights continue.”

Success, redefined: Purpose and positive social impact

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Cash, car, credit card, condominium and country club. These were the “5Cs” once said to define success in Singapore.

Success is about excelling at what we do today, persevering at it and doing it with pride instead of worrying about status or rewards

Today, the digital economy, environmental challenges and social justice movements have contributed to a redefinition of success. Many people are increasingly valuing purpose-driven careers, sustainability and social impact.

not forget that it is not all just about medals” and said that sport also helps rally communities together, and foster national pride and cohesion....Maybe more important than the podium victories are the victories over self-doubt and limitations, the courage to try, fail, and try again, over and over.

Qn: Winning is all that matters in international sporting events. Do you agree? (JPJC J1 WA 2024)

Screen time eating into physical playtime for pre-schoolers: Study

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Qn: Assess the view that children should be banned from using social media. (NYJC 2024 J1 CA)