SINGAPORE: Singapore said on Friday it would ban popular infidelity website AshleyMadison.com from operating in the tightly controlled city-state following concerns over the spread of adultery.
The curbs on the site, which has 22 million members in about 30 countries, illustrate a struggle in Singapore over how far to relax censorship laws.
It now bans Playboy magazine, clips racy scenes from movies and blocks dozens of websites in moves that have added to its image as Asia’s “nanny state.”
AshleyMadison.com, founded in Canada in 2001, began a Japanese service in June and a Hong Kong service last month. Its operators have announced plans to launch next year in Singapore, which has a population of 5.4 million.
“I do not welcome such a website in Singapore,” Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing wrote on his Facebook page.
“Promoting infidelity undermines trust and commitment between a husband and wife, which are core to marriage,” he said, adding that many Singaporeans shared his view.
AshleyMadison.com’s operators have said the site does not make people cheat but rather provides a platform for those who have already decided to have an affair.
The Southeast Asian city-state once banned women’s magazine Cosmopolitan and the television show “Sex and the City,” though a censored version of the hit HBO series was eventually allowed.
Responding to media queries, Singapore’s Media Development Authority indicated it would prevent Ashley Madison from offering its service in Singapore.
“Under the Broadcasting Act, MDA has the powers to act against Internet content providers which violate community standards and social norms, including issuing take-down notices or site-blocking,” a spokeswoman said.
Singapore says no to popular adultery website
Singapore says no to popular adultery website
ABC signs Jimmy Kimmel to a one-year contract extension, months after temporary suspension
President Donald Trump won’t be getting his wish. ABC said Monday it has signed late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel to a one-year contract extension.
Kimmel’s previous, multiyear contract had been set to expire next May, so the extension will keep him on the air until at least May 2027.
Kimmel’s future looked questionable in September, when ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for remarks made following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Following a public outcry, ABC lifted the suspension, and Kimmel returned to the air with much stronger ratings than he had before.
He continued his relentless joking at the president’s expense, leading Trump to urge the network to “get the bum off the air” in a social media post last month. The post followed Kimmel’s nearly 10-minute monologue on Trump and the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Kimmel was even on Trump’s mind Sunday as the president hosted the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington.
“I’ve watched some of the people that host,” Trump said. “I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people, if I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
Kimmel has hosted the Oscars four times, but he’s never hosted the Kennedy Center show.
Just last week, Kimmel was needling Trump on the president’s approval ratings. “There are gas stations on Yelp with higher approval ratings than Trump right now,” he said.
Kimmel will be staying longer than late-night colleague Stephen Colbert at CBS. The network announced this summer it was ending Colbert’s show next May for economic reasons, even though it is the top-rated network show in late-night television.
ABC has aired Kimmel’s late-night show since 2003, during a time of upheaval in the industry. Like much of broadcast television, late-night ratings are down. Viewers increasingly turn to watching monologues online the day after they appear.
Most of Kimmel’s recent renewals have been multiyear extensions. There was no immediate word on whose choice it was to extend his current contract by one year.
Following Kirk’s killing, Kimmel was criticized for saying that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” The Nexstar and Sinclair television ownership groups said it would take Kimmel off the air, leading to ABC’s suspension.
When he returned to the air, Kimmel did not apologize for his remarks, but he said he did not intend to blame any specific group for Kirk’s assassination. He said “it was never my intention to make the light of the murder of a young man.”
