FROM ‘OBSCENE’ MEDIASCAPES TO TOXIC SHADOW COMMUNITIES: THE GHETTOIZATION OF SAMMY BOY FORUM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON VULNERABLE COMMUNITY

[Bumiputera]

This thesis provides a framework to study the development and devolution of ‘deviant’ online media sites like SammyBoyForum (SBF) which were created by non-state actors to circumvent state censorship. Such a framework is crucial as it helps to explain how online criminogenic sites continue to exist on the Internet despite the government’s efforts to clamp down on them. Considering the growing notoriety of SBF in recent years under the scrutiny of local news media, this thesis conducts a non-participant observation of the forum as well as its subsidiary Telegram supergroups and traces its history – from a simple recommendations list of local brothels and massage parlors to an online forum promoting freedom of speech and ‘deviant’ expression, and finally to a Telegram supergroup encouraging the non-consensual creation, distribution, and access of intimate images featuring women and children. Using the aforementioned framework, this thesis makes three arguments. Firstly, the Singapore government’s overregulation of the Internet compelled citizens to retreat into the shadowscape – an alternative online space developed to accommodate the many deviant opinions and interests that were driven ‘underground’ by the state. Secondly, when these deviant perspectives are allowed to fester in the SBF shadowscape, it would result in the victimization of vulnerable communities – specifically women and children. Finally, the critical process which led to SBF’s devolution was Toxic Ghettoization, a concept introduced in this thesis to explain the normalization of toxic behavior in SBF.

https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/170289

 

[bobafettup]

Hi Wei Liang

 

[Abjure]

Wei liang ish a secret bike forum member

 

[nachtsid.er]

Author how many rep points in SBF?

 

[fallen1]

No wonder so chui NUS
Thesis write about sbf……..

 

[lowsesbbfa]

https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/170289

Not reading.

 

[tank_t]

No wonder so chui NUS
Thesis write about sbf……..

All the years study end up talk about sbf. He must have visited regularly to be able to write about the topic

 

[bombshell]

SBF is where the elites of EDMW go.

 

[android17]

Wei Liang is so obsessed about SBF until he has to write about it even for his thesis

 

[Bumiputera]

Wei Liang is so obsessed about SBF until he has to write about it even for his thesis

Who is going to write one for edmw?

 

[rachdanon]

Hiya, internet is a big cesspool since its conception...

 

[Redbull1628]

whats SBF??

 

[Hysteri]

this student is a winner. his years of exp on SBF converted into this graduation thesis

 

[walkingintherain]

huat type of christian name ish that?
Allergy...

 

[Ebaishyy]

Huai this guy rike sibei lor suo put simi bto and propsal to fiancee insai his acknowlegment section like that can meh notch beri professional leh.

 

[large.]

whats SBF??

The legal one is Singapore Business Federation.

 

[fallen1]

All the years study end up talk about sbf. He must have visited regularly to be able to write about the topic

Bet he’s done his extensive research for the thesis

 

[fallen1]

I

The legal one is Singapore Business Federation.

theres only 1 sbf on edmw
Same as “there only 1 tammy”

 

[tank_t]

I

theres only 1 sbf on edmw
Same as “there only 1 tammy”

The article pasted indeed refers to sammyboyforum leh

 

[napoleon bohlumpar]

SBF is where the elites of EDMW go.

is it ?..............i thought people here say only crazy people go to SBF ?

whats SBF??

the incomparable...............SammyBoy Forum...............i only go to Courtyard Cafe though.................where you can make all kinds of anti-PAP, racist, sexist, anti-religious comments..................

SBF is like the last bastion of online freedom of speech in S'pore..................