Friday, November 8, 2013

is Ashley Madison Singapore site blocked in Singapore?


Update : The Straits Times also says that MDA banned extra-marital dating website Ashley Madison but I can still access it from Singapore.

Ashley Madison, an extra-maritial affairs going with a motto of "life is short, have an affair", has created some buzz in Singapore after it has announced its planned to open up Singapore version of the website. But according to Tech In Asia, Singapore Government has effectively blocked access to the Ashley Madison Singapore site, which means people on local Internet Service Providers will not be able to access it.

It has effectively blocked access to the Ashley Madison Singapore site, which means people on local Internet Service Providers will not be able to access it. Our bloggers outside of Singapore are able to access the ashleymadison.sg domain name with no issues. A ping test done inside Singapore confirms that all data is being lost somewhere between the site’s servers and Singaporean web users.

Attempts to access the dating portal inside Singapore will lead to this message:

The website you are trying to access is restricted by the Media Development Authority (MDA). For more information on MDA regulations, please click here

Only Singapore residents who have installed a VPN will be able to bypass the ban. Unless authorities permit Singaporean ISPs to unblock the site.
Source : Extra-marital dating site Ashley Madison blocked in Singapore

According to Tech In Asia, users in Singapore would see the following screen:


I have tried the domain (it will be a risky item in my browser history :)) but instead of seeing the screen above, I could see the http://www.ashleymadison.sg/ entry page. I live in Singapore and I do not have any VPN or bla bla. But I am on StarHub not Singnet.

By the way, if you enter Ashley Madison global page (https://www.ashleymadison.com/) from Singapore, you are redirected to http://www.ashleymadison.sg. I read in the news that Ashley Madison is planning to open up its site this month in Singapore.

Below is the entry page for Ashley Madison Singapore web site. According to the site, Ashley Madison Singapore wil be coming to town in November 2013 (this month).

Ashley Madison Singapore

No comments:

Post a Comment