Singapore Internet Censorship: What's Blocked and Why | State of Surveillance

TL;DR: Singapore blocks websites through a "symbolic" list of 100+ sites maintained by IMDA, mostly porn, plus gambling, piracy, and sites deemed threats to "racial and religious harmony." In 2024-2025, the blocklist expanded to include "disinformation" sites and 92+ piracy domains. The list is secret, blocking is ISP-level, and circumvention is trivial: VPNs, proxies, or changing your DNS. The government knows this. The blocking is performative: signaling values rather than actually preventing access.

How Singapore Blocks Websites

Singapore's internet censorship operates through the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), which requires local ISPs to block access to designated sites. The system is transparent about being limited: the government calls it "symbolic" [1].

The blocking mechanism:

IMDA maintains a secret blocklist (never publicly released)
ISPs (Singtel, StarHub, M1) implement DNS-level blocking
Users see a block page when accessing listed sites
The block is trivially bypassed with VPNs, proxies, or alternate DNS

The government acknowledges this limitation. As one official put it, the 100-site symbolic list exists to "signal societal values" rather than actually prevent access. Anyone who wants to access blocked content can do so in seconds [2].

What Categories Are Blocked

Pornography (The Core List)

The majority of blocked sites are pornographic. Known blocked sites include:

Playboy.com
YouPorn
RedTube
Pornhub
Ashley Madison (extramarital dating)

These represent "mass impact" content that the government considers harmful to "public morality" and "family values." The list has existed since the late 1990s [3].

Online Gambling

Unlicensed gambling sites are blocked. Singapore allows only state-run or licensed gambling (Singapore Pools, casinos), so foreign betting sites are restricted. Specific sites aren't publicly named, but offshore casinos and sports betting platforms are targets.

Piracy and Copyright Infringement

This category has grown dramatically through court orders:

May 2018: 53 torrent/streaming sites blocked (The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents, Solarmovie, etc.) following MPAA application
March 2024: 25 sites blocked for illegal Premier League streaming
February 2025: 22 more illegal streaming sites + 70 related domains blocked (BBC, beIN Sports, LaLiga request) [4]

The piracy blocklist now exceeds 150 domains and continues growing. Rights holders actively pursue court orders to add sites.

Disinformation and "Hostile Information Campaigns"

In October 2024, Singapore blocked 10 websites identified as "inauthentic" foreign disinformation sites. The Ministry of Home Affairs stated these could be used for "hostile information campaigns" against Singapore [5].

Characteristics of blocked disinformation sites:

AI-generated content mimicking legitimate news
Foreign-operated with Singapore-focused content
Potentially linked to state actors

The government stated there's "no limit" to the number of sites that can be blocked under this category. Unlike the symbolic porn list, disinformation blocking is framed as active security rather than values signaling [6].

Content Blocked Under POFMA

The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) can result in access blocking. In January 2025, the Australia-based academic site East Asia Forum was blocked after refusing to comply with a correction direction [7].

POFMA blocking differs from IMDA blocking:

Triggered by specific content, not site category
Can be lifted if the site complies
Targets political/factual content rather than "morality"

The Secret 100+ Site List

IMDA maintains a "floating" blocklist of 100+ websites that has never been publicly released. We know it exists, we know its approximate size, but not its complete contents [8].

What we know:

Majority are pornographic sites
Includes some gambling domains
Contains sites deemed harmful to "racial and religious harmony"
Updated periodically without public notice

Why keep it secret?

The government has never explained why the list isn't public. Likely reasons:

Publishing would create a "what to search for" guide
Avoids debates about specific inclusion decisions
Maintains flexibility to add/remove sites quietly

Community efforts like the Singapore Internet Watch project attempt to document blocked sites through testing, but the complete list remains unknown [9].

Stricter Blocking in Institutions

While home internet uses the symbolic blocklist, public institutions implement stricter filtering:

Schools and libraries block:

Criminal skills content
Pornography
Cults/occult material
Extreme/obscene/violent content
Gambling

These institutional blocks are more comprehensive than residential ISP blocking and harder to circumvent on managed networks [10].

Legal Framework

Multiple laws enable website blocking:

Broadcasting Act 1994

The primary mechanism for IMDA blocking. Section 16 allows directions to ISPs to disable access to content "against public interest" or "national security" [11].

Internet Code of Practice

Requires ISPs to block content that:

Undermines public security or national defense
Promotes racial or religious hatred
Is obscene or harmful to minors

Copyright Act

Rights holders can obtain court orders requiring ISPs to block sites that facilitate infringement. This is the mechanism for piracy site blocking.

POFMA

Allows blocking of sites that fail to comply with correction directions about "false statements of fact."

FICA (Foreign Interference Countermeasures Act)

Enables blocking of foreign-linked apps and sites deemed threats to Singapore's political sovereignty [12].

How to Access Blocked Content

Singapore's blocking is DNS-level, meaning it's trivially bypassed. The government knows this and accepts it: the blocking is symbolic, not functional.

VPN (Easiest)

VPNs are legal in Singapore. Connect to a server outside Singapore and all blocks disappear. Takes 30 seconds to set up. See our Singapore VPN guide.

Change DNS

Switch from your ISP's DNS to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Google (8.8.8.8). This bypasses DNS-level blocking without a VPN. Free and fast.

Proxy/Tor

Web proxies or the Tor browser route traffic through other servers, bypassing local blocks. Slower than VPNs but works.

GOM Extension

GOM is a browser extension specifically made for Singapore users to bypass local blocking. Free and simple to use [13].

Is circumvention legal?

Using a VPN or changing DNS is legal. However, the underlying activity might not be:

Accessing porn: Not illegal (just blocked)
Pirating copyrighted content: Still illegal, VPN or not
Accessing blocked disinformation: Legal gray area
Online gambling on unlicensed sites: Illegal

Singapore vs. Other Countries

Aspect	Singapore	China	UAE
Scope	~100-200 sites (symbolic)	Millions of sites/IPs	Thousands of sites
VPN blocking	No	Yes (active)	Partial
Deep packet inspection	No	Yes	Yes
Circumvention difficulty	Trivial	Moderate-Hard	Easy-Moderate
Purpose	Values signaling	Information control	Religious/moral law

Singapore's blocking is notably lighter than authoritarian regimes. It's designed to be bypassed by motivated users while maintaining official disapproval of certain content.

Recent Blocking Actions (2024-2025)

October 2024: 10 AI-generated disinformation sites blocked
February 2025: 22 piracy sites + 70 domains blocked (sports streaming)
January 2025: East Asia Forum blocked for POFMA non-compliance
March 2024: 25 Premier League streaming sites blocked

The trend shows expansion beyond the traditional "symbolic" list into active enforcement against piracy and disinformation [14].

The Bottom Line

Singapore's internet censorship is real but limited. The government maintains a secret list of ~100+ blocked sites (mostly porn and gambling), plus growing lists of piracy and disinformation domains.

The blocking is DNS-level and trivially bypassed. VPNs are legal. Changing your DNS takes two minutes. The government knows this and doesn't try to prevent circumvention.

This makes Singapore's censorship fundamentally different from China's or Iran's. It's not about actually preventing access: it's about official values signaling. The message: "We disapprove of this content." The reality: Anyone can access it.

Whether that's sensible pragmatism or performative theater depends on your perspective. Either way, if you want to access blocked content in Singapore, you can.