MDA responds to anti-Stomp petition

SINGAPORE - The post was made in response to a petition to shut down citizen journalism website Stomp, which is owned by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). The petition claims to have collected more than 22,700 signatures since being set up 11 days ago on international campaigning site change.org by 26-year-old retail executive Robin Li.

MDA's Facebook post:

"You may be aware of an ongoing petition to shut down STOMP. While it is not for MDA to influence the editorial slant of sites, we would, as the media regulator of Singapore, take firm action if any Internet content provider is in breach of the Internet Code of Practice. These typically cover content that is against public interest and/or content that promotes racial and religious hatred or intolerance.

"As users of the Internet and as part of our efforts to promote responsible online behaviour, netizens can and should continue signalling to content providers the standards that we expect of them, so that they can in turn heed these calls. Should you believe that STOMP, together with other class-licensed and individually licensed sites merit stronger regulation, we invite you to propose how the standards should be tightened.

"Let's build a healthy online environment together."