Group formed to help netizens understand their rights on Internet

So a group of 20 IT and cyber law professionals has decided to form the Community of Information Technology Experts (CITE) whose members include academics from the National University of Singapore and the Singapore Management University.

Bryan Ghows, director, TSMP Law Corporation, said: "We simply like to help the community, the public, at least understand what rules sort of govern the Internet usage in Singapore because a lot of the laws you read are very US-specific, which are not applicable in Singapore.

Though the group does not give legal advice, it provides basic information on Singapore Internet law such as copyright, trademark issues and defamation.

The purpose is to get people to think before shooting off that email, tweet, blog or Facebook post.

A seemingly harmless rant could end up with serious consequences. Anyone who has doubts on what he or she may post on the Internet could send queries to the CITE website.