Flutterby™! : No Free Labor for Authoritarians

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No Free Labor for Authoritarians

2026-03-19 22:50:46.271686+01 by Dan Lyke 0 comments

A good read on working to avoid self-censorship under regimes which don't outright ban dissent, but build systems that make people complicit in their own silence. No Free Labor for Authoritarians: Censorship and Dissent in Singapore by Kirsten Han

Technically, activists and dissidents like me aren’t harassed in Singapore. According to the government, we’re the ones who force the state’s hand: by organizing illegal assemblies (as defined by legislation introduced by the ruling People’s Action Party), by publishing “false statements of fact” online (as determined by government ministers), by wanting to mount “misleading” exhibitions (as evaluated by state regulators). Electric fences have been erected around the pen of public discourse; if activists wander up to the boundaries and get electrocuted, can the state really be accused of harassment and oppression? Technically speaking?

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