TRS, one down, one to go

In the social media scene, there is practically only a handful of active websites for alternative news. Taking away the more colourful sites, there are really only two decent sites that gave a good spread of the news in the social media and are the places that netizens hungry for alternative views will gravitate to, the TR Emeritus or TRE and The Real Singapore or TRS.
 
Being a ground up news and views and opinion provider, an aggregator of what the people say, mainly individuals expressing themselves on events and happenings here, the posts are expected to be very colourful and varied, from rumour mongering, drumming, serious opinions and serious news. There will be the occasional fabrications of lies, of distorted news and the one sided news that the main media are also well known for.
 
The TRS has been ordered by the govt to be taken down and they did since last night. It was reported that their ‘licence to operate the site was suspended by the MDA’. This is news to me, the part about having a licence to operate a virtual site in virtual space. Would a site operating in the US or Europe but with contents about Singapore and frequented by Singaporeans and citizens of the world require to get a licence from the MDA?
 
The reason for the closing down of TRS, ‘they have published material that is “objectionable on the grounds of public interest, public order and national harmony”’. These motherhood clauses can mean anything under the sky and violating this regulation could see the editor in jail for up to 3 years or a fine of S$200,000. A couple, a 26 year old Singaporean, Yang Kaiheng and a 22 year old Australian, Ai Takagi, have been arrested and charged ‘with seven counts of sedition and one of failing to produce documents to a police officer’. They were alleged to have published articles that ‘promoted ill will and hostility between different races or classes here’. The more serious part according to MDA is, ‘deliberately fabricated articles and falsely attributed them to innocent parties’.
 
With the TRS down, the only popular website left is the TRE. Everyone is wondering how long would TRE survive given the sensitivity of the MDA and the coming general election. TRE is now the preferred site of choice for alternative news and will be watched like a hawk. If the TRE also goes under, there would hardly be any worthy alternative sites left for the social media enthusiasts to visit. It would literally mark the end of social media here.

Is this the end of the light touch policy and a new beginning to the end of social media?