Singapore orders Facebook to remove content critical of the government – not just within Singapore, but globally

Recently, the government of Singapore ordered Facebook to remove a post that an Australian user created that was critical of the government. Singapore has strict media control laws, and Facebook’s tendency is to yield to local jurisdictions whenever it can. This time is a little more complex though – the government of Singapore are not just asking for the content to be blocked in Singapore; they want it removed for everybody, everywhere.

Governments can and should determine the laws the govern their own countries, but how should a private entity respond to such a request? The power of a company like Facebook comes not only from the data it collects and maintains, but from controlling the ways in which that information flows. Californian ideals around free-speech and the everywhere-but-nowhere rhetoric of cloud computing will continue to be challenged by the real and messy business of borders, territories and the sovereignty of states that are themselves trying to wrestle control of information flows.