03 October 2020
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- Has POFMA Been Effective in Dealing with Fake News a Year Since It Was Enforced?
Has POFMA Been Effective in Dealing with Fake News a Year Since It Was Enforced?
The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) was passed in Parliament on 8 May last year and since then, the POFMA Office has issued 52 correction directions, 11 targeted correction directions, four declared online locations, three disabling orders, one general correction direction and one access blocking order. Dr Michael Raska, an information and cyber warfare expert at RSIS, said Singapore’s society is increasingly affected by disinformation streams through social media. “Different actors are trying to alter what Singapore’s Government and population ‘knows’ or thinks it knows about itself and the world around it,” he said. Associate Professor Alton Chua, who studies information and knowledge management at NTU, said POFMA has been used most appropriately when falsehoods exploit racial and religious fault lines to arouse public concern. He pointed to how POFMA was invoked on Nov 28 last year after a post on the now-defunct States Times Review Facebook page alleged that a whistle-blower, who had supposedly exposed a People’s Action Party candidate’s Christian affiliations, had been arrested.
IDSS / Online
Last updated on 05/10/2020
