A particularly brutal race to the bottom is playing out among Singapore's youngest workers: www.singapore-samizdat.com/p/singapore-...

Singapore internship rat race and plummeting birth rates are related, actually

A university’s 2+2 programme takes internshipmaxxing to the next level.

singapore-samizdat.com

I am no longer a journalist with The Straits Times! Today marks the end of my time as a professional busybody, and my return to school to pursue further studies as a PhD candidate at Stockholm University. I hope I'll have good news to share in 4-5 years!

Boomers can’t stop using AI to create fake images of Singapore history. I write about what we're losing to the scourge of AI-generated history that's taking over Singapore's boomer-centric online spaces:

Boomers can’t stop using AI to create fake images of Singapore history

The country's largest online heritage community is being overrun with AI slop.

singapore-samizdat.com

We should all be concerned about the expansion of youth social media bans. Queer, neurodiverse kids outcasted in their own communities have always found belonging on the internet. The moral panic language of 'child safety' has long been weaponised against us and it's working.

In May, NUS's president announced to staff that AI deployment would be a "leadership KPI". Employees I interviewed say that what is happening feels at times like the university is putting AI adoption ahead of a clear vision of how AI should improve working life:

AI as a leadership KPI: Workers clash with AI mandates

"Tokenmaxxing" describes workers anxiously performing pointless AI tasks to improve AI-related KPIs. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

straitstimes.com

Every day is the end of an era in Singapore. I write about how Singapore's nostalgia media is really disempowerment media here: www.singapore-samizdat.com/p/every-day-...

This is a little late, but my second peer-reviewed journal article was published (open access) earlier this year, and looks at how civil society experiences censorship and control over data in Singapore. Read it on the International Journal of Communication: ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

The Circe & Diana mother-daughter relationship was not only one of the most important pillars of Absolute Wonder Woman, but also the most important to me personally. My mother is adopted and I wanted to show how powerful and beautiful that can be. Happy Mother's Day to all loving mothers everywhere.

Why do the perpetrators behind "revenge porn" and other forms of non-consensual intimate images keep getting away with it? That's the subject of my latest story for The Straits Times, which looks at how image-based sexual abuse has morphed through the decades in Singapore:

Decades of image-based sexual abuse: How perpetrators evade tech platforms and the authorities

Explore the evolving landscape of image-based sexual abuse, from decades-old tactics to modern AI deepfakes, and how perpetrators evade detection. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitsti...

straitstimes.com

Our @oshsg.bsky.social team is cited in this important article by @kaixiang.info on #OnlineSexualHarms in Singapore 🇸🇬 Read to find out more 🔗 www.straitstimes.com/life/decades... #OnlineHarms #DigitalSafety #EndTFGBV #OnlineSafety #DigitalEquality #TFSV #IBSA

Decades of image-based sexual abuse: How perpetrators evade tech platforms and the authorities

Explore the evolving landscape of image-based sexual abuse, from decades-old tactics to modern AI deepfakes, and how perpetrators evade detection. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitsti...

straitstimes.com

"This Esquire interview is just the latest manifestation in the mainstreaming of AI slop in Singapore, a country that has long been an early adopter of very questionable uses of the technology."

The AI slopification of the Singaporean Internet

The AI slopification of Singapore is emblematic of one of the most Singaporean of feelings: apathy and indifference.

singapore-samizdat.com

Singapore is one of the most connected countries in the world, with more wireless broadband subscriptions than there are people. Yet, this connection is experienced very differently by Singapore's domestic workers:

‘Not allowed to use the home Wi-Fi’: How domestic workers get online in Singapore

They turn to prepaid SIM cards, which allow for greater budget control and offer flexibility. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

straitstimes.com

EDELGARD WAS RIGHT

Why is Singapore Reddit like that? In 2025, after the election, many users proclaimed that Singapore's Reddit communities are echo chambers unrepresentative of broader Singapore. The truth is more complicated: www.straitstimes.com/life/reddit-...

Reddit wars: What’s driving Singapore’s largest online communities

Explore how content moderation, prolific posters, and niche discussions shape Singapore's largest and most contentious online communities on Reddit. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straits...

straitstimes.com

One of the depressing parts about being a journalist today is knowing how many people never read past the headline

In my first newsletter of this lunar new year, I take a look at why Western creators keep looking at Asian cities and seeing dystopian futures:

Techno-orientalism is lazier than ever

From Alien: Earth to Westworld, Western creators keep looking at Asian cities and seeing dystopian futures.

singapore-samizdat.com

I've always believed that all good journalism is good gossip, and this is living proof of it:

WIRED@wired.com · 7mo ago

Gay men have long been rumored to run Silicon Valley. WIRED investigates. www.wired.com/story/inside...

You’re laughing. The Mellon foundation is providing grants to gender and area studies programs and you’re laughing.

A wave of controversy over sexually explicit AI deepfakes has not made billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X or chatbot Grok any less popular in Singapore. Instead, it may have done the opposite.

Singapore users are flocking to Elon Musk’s Grok despite deepfake controversy

Despite deepfake controversies, Elon Musk's Grok app sees a surge in popularity among Singapore users, raising concerns about online safety. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.co...

straitstimes.com

It's sad but unsurprising to me that all the controversy surrounding x/twitter and grok have only made them more popular in Singapore - not less.

Much of my 2025 was spent writing about all the reasons that nightlife business operators are struggling in Singapore. Looking ahead, my prediction is that 2026 will be the year of nightlife going smaller - becoming a more niche and subcultural affair:

If 2025 was the year of nightlife closures in S’pore, 2026 will be the year of going small

Your reporter predicts a smaller and more subcultural future for Singapore's nightlife in 2026. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

straitstimes.com

I've started blogging again - this time about why bad food reviews are so rare in Singapore (and the country's last honest food reviewer). Read it here: www.singapore-samizdat.com/p/the-most-s...

This is the person who I've nominated for Singaporean of the Year, an award my newspaper gives out annually:

Singaporean of the Year finalist: Meet the internet’s janitor whose fingerprints are all over Wikipedia

Volunteers like Mr Robert Sim keep the online encyclopedia Wikipedia alive and accurate. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

straitstimes.com

The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.

As the unique financial risks of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) become apparent, we're seeing tightening regulations from governments across the globe. And yet, BNPL is making a comeback in Singapore, increasingly embraced by the platforms that define commerce here. Here's why:

‘Spend first, worry later’: Why Buy Now, Pay Later is making a comeback in 2025

Once a novelty, Buy Now Pay Later firms are now almost ubiquitous in Singapore's financial landscape. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

straitstimes.com

If you've ever wondered how pig-butchering or love scams begin, here's how. Made all the more timely by that recent Reuters report published yesterday on how Meta's internal research estimated that its platforms were involved in a third of all successful scams in the US.

‘Are you single, old man?’: Scam artistry has never been easier

Going down the rabbit hole of online scams and exploitation, one finds an audience eager to believe the lies. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

straitstimes.com

In 2006, Mr Pillai paid just $3 for his late-night journey home to Yishun from the city centre. Back then, the NightRider buses operated from 11.30pm to 4.30am, covering that stretch of the early hours when the MRT lines cease to run (...)

Is Singapore a 24-hour city without the NightRider bus?

Singapore's revellers and nightlife workers are wistful for the bygone era of the NightRider bus. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

straitstimes.com

Shock therapy: why scary movies keep evolving – and making money

Shock therapy: why scary movies keep evolving – and making money

With Hollywood favouring franchise fare, horror films have become the last bastion of inventive film-making, producing a new generation of auteurs in the process

theguardian.com

How Ruby went off the rails: A deep dive into the ownership and governance drama of some of the most important open source projects in the world www.404media.co/how-ruby-wen...

How Ruby Went Off the Rails

What happened to RubyGems, Bundler, and the Open Source drama that controls the internet infrastructure.

404media.co

The real generational divide is people who refuse to watch a video if it could be an article versus people who refuse to read an article if it could be a video