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56-599: The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 , commonly abbreviated as POFMA and known colloquially as Fake News Law , is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that enables authorities to tackle the spread of fake news or false information . The law is designed specifically to allow authorities to respond to fake news or false information through a graduated process of enforcing links to fact-checking statements, censorship of website or assets on social media platforms, and criminal charges. While

112-560: A " Certificate of Eligibility " from the Presidential Elections Committee. These conditions are: Because of the stringent requirements needed to run for presidential elections, only three out of the seven elections had contests (1993, 2011 and 2023), while the rest were walkovers . An amendment to the Constitution in 2016 saw the 2017 election become reserved for a certain community ( Malay community in

168-626: A POFMA Office within IMDA to administer the law, on basis that IMDA has relevant connections to the tech industry and experience in administering the Broadcasting Act and other similar content regulation policies. The POFMA Office maintains a registry of Declared Online Locations and also establishes a mechanism for the general public to apply for a relevant Direction or Declaration to the relevant ministry. All applications to vary or cancel any Directions or Declaration must be made within 14 days to

224-488: A Select Committee of eight PAP MPs, one opposition MP and one NMP to study and report on the problem of deliberate online falsehoods and recommend strategies to deal with them. The Select Committee convened public hearings from 14 to 29 March 2018, lasting eight days in total, where 79 individuals and organisations were invited to testify. On 1 April 2019, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation (POFMA) Bill

280-556: A Targeted Correction Direction may be sent to internet intermediaries and providers of mass media services to communicate the correction notice in response to a false statement to end-users in Singapore. A Disabling Direction may be issued to disable access an online location to end-users in Singapore. A General Correction Direction may be sent to instruct publication of correction notice on the relevant platforms. If an online location has three or more false statements, it may be tagged as

336-874: A close result, though they were returned to SMCs after years of absence. However, Freedom House has noted that elections in Singapore are technically free of electoral fraud. Throughout the history of the Republic of Singapore, hundreds of politicians have been elected in Parliament, of whom majority of unique candidates represent the governing People's Action Party including late stalwarts like Lee Khoon Choy . Since 1965, 19 opposition politicians have been elected into Parliament, including J. B. Jeyaretnam , Chiam See Tong , Low Thia Khiang , Ling How Doong , Cheo Chai Chen , Chen Show Mao , Yaw Shin Leong , Png Eng Huat , Lee Li Lian , and also ten incumbent candidates from

392-496: A commotion between Thaipusam participants and the police was sparked by complaints from a Filipino family, the States Times Review which mocked former President S. R. Nathan with an article claiming near-zero turnout for his funeral, and All Singapore Stuff which falsely reported eye-witness accounts of a collapsed HDB roof at Punggol Waterway Terraces, subsequently wasting SPF and SCDF resources during

448-470: A declared online location. A declared online location will need to place a notice of such declaration for up to two years, and are not able to receive any financial support. Non-compliance of these Directions may accrue fines and/or prison terms by the offender. An Access Block Order on online location may be issued in event of noncompliance as well to instruct Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to order internet service providers to disable access to

504-427: A notice to all of their end-users on the false claim in accordance with the general correction direction. The Ministry of Communications and Information lifted the temporary exemption of social media platforms, search engines and Internet intermediaries from complying with POFMA. These platforms were required to comply with general correction directions issued from 31 January 2020. The exemptions initially applied when

560-549: Is " totalitarian " and used as a tool to regulate public debates. Reuters states that the Act "ensnares" government critics. Two years after the Act was passed, the International Commission of Jurists called for the government to repeal or at least make amends to the Act, so that it does not "arbitrarily restrict the right to freedom of expression and information online". After having to remove several posts under

616-749: Is also used to refer to an International treaty that establishes an institution , such as the Statute of the European Central Bank , a protocol to the international courts as well, such as the Statute of the International Court of Justice and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court . Statute is also another word for law. The term was adapted from England in about the 18th century. In

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672-416: Is how to organize published statutes. Such publications have a habit of starting small but growing rapidly over time, as new statutes are enacted in response to the exigencies of the moment. Eventually, persons trying to find the law are forced to sort through an enormous number of statutes enacted at various points in time to determine which portions are still in effect. The solution adopted in many countries

728-404: Is not applicable on intermediary services such as internet intermediaries , telecommunications services , public internet access services, or a computing resource service. Contravening these prohibitions may see fines and/or prison terms imposed on the offender. A Correction Direction may be sent out to a communicator of the false statement, instructing the person to place a notice stating that

784-467: Is not in Singapore, and that the false statement is detrimental to "the security of Singapore", "public health, public safety, public tranquillity or public finances", friendly international relations with other countries, influence the outcome of parliamentary and presidential elections or referendums, incite tension between different groups of people, or diminish public confidence in the public service or general governance of Singapore. Through Section 8,

840-473: Is to organize existing statutory law in topical arrangements (or "codified" ) within publications called codes , then ensure that new statutes are consistently drafted so that they add, amend, repeal or move various code sections. In turn, in theory, the code will thenceforth reflect the current cumulative state of the statutory law in that jurisdiction. In many nations statutory law is distinguished from and subordinate to constitutional law . The term statute

896-565: The COVID-19 pandemic , the Act was utilised in several instances to fight misinformation about the pandemic situation in Singapore. On 27 January 2020, HardwareZone forum was issued a general correction direction over a false claim of a man from Singapore having died from the COVID-19 virus . The forum post containing the false claim was taken down soon after it was posted, however the Singapore-based online forum still had to display

952-593: The Constitution of Singapore , general elections for Parliament must be conducted within three months of the dissolution of Parliament, which has a maximum term of five years from the first sitting of Parliament, and presidential elections are conducted every six years. The Parliament of Singapore is unicameral with 93 seats. Since the legislative assembly election in 1959 , the People's Action Party (PAP) has had an overwhelming majority, and for nearly two decades

1008-581: The Elections Department , determines electoral boundaries without the need of parliamentary approval, was established as part of the executive branch under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), rather than as an independent body; analysists also criticize the process of electoral engineering, whereas poll results would determine whether if the constituency with a poor result would be redistricted to neighbouring constituencies, though that

1064-553: The Group Representation Constituency (GRC), a plurality General ticket voting system for a team of between three and six candidates, to improve the ethnicity representation in Parliament and town council management ; certain analysis crititized the scheme as a form of gerrymandering to reduce opposition representation, most notably where teams in a GRC had been elected uncontested on consecutive elections. In each election leading up to nominations,

1120-668: The High Court . A 2021 landmark judgement saw the Court of Appeal formulating a 5-step framework for a court to follow in deciding to set aside the correction orders or directions in future cases. The first Correction Direction was issued to Brad Bowyer, a Progress Singapore Party member, to place a correction notice on statements of falsehoods which implied that the Government controls Temasek 's and GIC 's commercial decisions, that billions of dollars in investments were wasted on

1176-533: The Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ministry of Manpower (MOM) jointly, taking issue on the following statements made, which the ministries said to be false: In response to his interview's correction by POFMA, the Singapore Democratic Party 's chairman Professor Paul Tambyah retroactively claimed that his point in the original interview was who signed a circular email rather than suggesting

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1232-569: The Workers' Party including Secretary-general and opposition leader Pritam Singh , as well as the Chairwoman and first female MP-elect Sylvia Lim and first Malay MP-elect Faisal Manap . A general election was called on 23 June 2020, with Singaporeans electing their Members of Parliament (MPs) on 10 July 2020. Presidential elections have been held since 1993. Under the "Presidential Elections Act", to run for president, one must obtain

1288-464: The autonomous communities of Spain , an autonomy statute is a legal document similar to the constitution of a federated state , save that it is enacted by the national legislature, rather than the autonomous community it governs. The autonomy statutes in Spain have the rank of ley orgánica (organic law), a category of special legislation reserved only for the main institutions and issues and mentioned in

1344-527: The 1960s and early 1970s. Many such as Lim Chin Siong , Said Zahari and Lim Hock Siew were accused by the government of being involved in subversive communist struggles. Other oppositions had also rendered ineligible due to conviction, including those who went bankrupt. Catherine Lim argues that a climate of fear hurts Singapore. In the eighties, opposition politicians began being elected in parliament with J. B. Jeyaretnam and Chiam See Tong , along with

1400-488: The Act would enable authorities to suppress criticism and dissent. Section 2(2)(b) defines a false statement as "if it is false or misleading, whether wholly or in part, and whether on its own or in the context in which it appears". Satire, parody, opinions and criticisms are expressively not covered by the POFMA Act. Section 3 of the Act covers any statements that are made available to one or more end-users in Singapore via

1456-550: The Act, Facebook stated that it was "concerned" by the "broad powers" the act provides the Singaporean government with. In 2020, the Media Literacy Council (MLC), an outreach programme under IMDA which promotes digital and media literacy , included satire as an "example" of fake news in one of its Facebook posts and info-graphics on 5 September 2019. The MLC took down the post and issued an apology for

1512-571: The ELD decline to reveal the reasons of redistriction except for population increase in planning areas and electorate balancing. In one notable scenario, both Cheng San and Eunos GRC were examples of constituencies dissolved by the Elections Department after opposition parties gained ground in elections, with voters redistributed to other constituencies; similarly, Bukit Batok and Yuhua were also absorbed into neighbouring GRCs due to

1568-462: The apex court, Court of Appeal . Due to the closeness in the timing of the cases, and of the legal matters to be heard, both cases were heard together in the Court of Appeal. However, in September 2020, a panel of senior judges in the Court of Appeal reserved judgement on several legal issues, one of them is whether the burden of proof fell on the statement maker or the minister. On 8 October 2021,

1624-621: The bill will not affect free speech. The Bill was passed with a 72–9 vote, with all Workers Party (WP) MPs voting against it, on 8 May 2019 after a two-day debate. The POFMA came into effect on 2 October 2019, with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) being the agency administering Act through a dedicated office. Subsidiary legislation is also laid out in the Act detailing how the Act will work, including court challenges that take nine days at maximum and cost as little as $ 200. There were concerns that

1680-409: The canned Amaravati city project, and Salt Bae 's parent company, which received an investment from Temasek, was debt-laden. The commercial decisions made by Temasek and GIC are asserted to be independent, while only millions of dollars was sunk into the city project, and the investment made in D.ream International BV, and not in one of D.ream International BV's shareholders called Doğuş Holding that

1736-558: The case), resulting in that year's election to cause a walkover as well. To date, 10 candidates had awarded the Certificate of Eligibility (with two being eligible twice), of which five candidates were president-elect (only one candidate, S. R. Nathan , had served for two terms and had no prior affiliation with the incumbent ruling People's Action Party ) A referendum may also be held for important national issues, although it has been held only once in Singapore's political history for

Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 - Misplaced Pages Continue

1792-488: The confusion on 8 September, saying that they would review their materials. Minister Shanmugam attributed it as a mistake or inaccuracy being made by the MLC, reassuring that satire does not count as fake news. Statute The word "statute" is derived from the late Latin word "statutum", which means 'law', 'decree'. In virtually all countries, newly enacted statutes are published and distributed so that everyone can look up

1848-537: The constitution (the highest ranking legal instrument in Spain). Leyes orgánicas rank between the constitution and ordinary laws. The name was chosen, among others, to avoid confusion with the term constitution (i.e. the Spanish constitution of 1978). Elections in Singapore [REDACTED] There are currently two types of elections in Singapore . Parliamentary and presidential elections. According to

1904-471: The content they had posted on their platforms over the allegations of "Singapore prison officers carry[ing] out brutal execution method" by Malaysian-based Lawyers For Liberty . Similarly to SDP's case, TOC filed an appeal to MHA, however was rejected. TOC then chose to apply to the High Court to cancel the order set against it. Both cases were heard separately, by different High Court judges, but had

1960-428: The creation and usage of bots or enabling another person to utilise, with the intention to communicate a false statement of fact in Singapore is prohibited. Section 9 prohibits soliciting, receiving, or agreeing to receive a benefit for providing a service which the person knows is or will be used to communicate a false statement of fact in Singapore, if the service is in fact used in the communication. However, Section 9

2016-554: The creation of two schemes in the eighties: the Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) scheme awarding to the candidates with the best result among non-elected oppositions in the eighties, and a group of nonpartisans collectively known as Nominated Member of Parliament . Further amendments resulted in a minimum quota of number of oppositions to determine the number of NCMPs, from three members to nine in 2010s, then to 12 in 2020s. The 1988 elections introduced

2072-470: The email's content was not distributed without the advice of medical professionals. The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and The Online Citizen (TOC) were the first few parties to challenge some of the Directions set upon them. On 14 December 2019, SDP was directed by Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to correct two Facebook posts and an article on its website, in which SDP advanced a position that there

2128-552: The executive to clamp down on what is misleading but which may not be false per se". Pritam's fellow member, Sylvia Lim commented that the process to appeal against the orders could be "very onerous" to the applicants due to "information asymmetry between the Government and individuals". An editorial on The Online Citizen questioned why POFMA was not applied on foreign news outlets where there are false statements, and diplomats were responding with lengthy letters to disagree with

2184-429: The false statements instead. Dozens of journalists signed an open letter stating "By failing to distinguish between a malicious falsehood and a genuine mistake, the proposed legislation places an unnecessarily onerous burden on even journalists acting in good faith". The Act was criticised by human rights groups and free speech organisations. Reporters Without Borders claimed that the bill was "terrible", stating that it

2240-467: The follow-up investigation. The Minister claimed that fake news, when not debunked, can quickly cause harm to Singaporeans, panic to public, waste emergency resources, and damage reputations of businesses and people. He also claimed that "nasty" people seek to profit from fake news and that foreign agencies and foreign governments seek to destabilise the government through fake news. On 10 January 2018, 80 MPs present voted unanimously in Parliament to appoint

2296-399: The internet, SMS or MMS. The platforms include social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other online closed groups such private chat groups and social media groups. The purpose of the Act, as outlined in section 5, is to: Part 2 of the POFMA Act criminalises the communication of false statements of facts in Singapore through Section 7 even if the person communicating it

Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 - Misplaced Pages Continue

2352-564: The law first took effect. On 20 May 2021, on instructions from Ministry of Health , a general correction direction was issue to Twitter, Facebook, and HardwareZone forum over an allegation of an unknown 'Singapore variant' of the virus being at risk of spreading to India. In July 2020, during the campaigning period of the general election , five correction directions were issued to the National University of Singapore Society, CNA , The Online Citizen and New Naratif by

2408-399: The law has existed in similar capacities in various other countries, it received criticism by some opposition politicians, human rights groups, journalists and academics. On 3 April 2017, Minister of Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam called for a review of existing laws to combat fake news. He cited online portals such as The Real Singapore which published an article falsely claiming that

2464-532: The online location. To deal with fake accounts and bots, an Account Restriction Direction may be issued to order an internet intermediary to shut down any fake accounts and bots on its platforms and/or prevent the accounts' owners from interacting with end-users in Singapore. Government ministers will issue instructions to correct falsehoods through an appointed Competent Authority, as laid out in Section 6. The Ministry of Communications and Information established

2520-529: The reasons to use the law were stated clearly, and that the correction notice does not curtail one's freedom of speech, and will instead help end-users make up their mind as to what is the truth. In November 2019, under the act, the government of Singapore requested Facebook to add a correction notice to a post from Alex Tan 's States Times Review after Tan refused to add the notice himself. The post included allegations involving election rigging, which Singapore claimed were false. The State Times Review Facebook page

2576-489: The rulings by the Court of Appeal was delivered. Among the matters heard were the constitutionality of POFMA; the burden of proof falls on which party; on whether reporting a falsehood counts as making a falsehood. It also delivered a five-step legal framework which courts can use to apply on whether to set aside a correction order in the future. It also put a finality on the statements made by SDP and TOC , as to whether they were fake or not. The panel of judges found that POFMA

2632-535: The same outcome: their appeals to cancel the orders were denied. However, in both cases, the judgement on the burden of proof differed. Justice Ang Cheng Hock in SDP's case found that the burden of proof is to be borne by the minister, while Justice Belinda Ang in TOC 's case found that the burden of proof is to be borne by the party making the statements that were being corrected. Both SDP and TOC decided to file their appeals to

2688-402: The statement was found to be false and a correction of the false statement. The placement location of this notice may also be specified at an online location or in close proximity of the false statement, or in newspapers. A Stop Communication Direction may be issued as well, instructing the person to disable access of the false statement to end-users in Singapore by a specific time. Concurrently,

2744-408: The statutory law. This can be done in the form of a government gazette which may include other kinds of legal notices released by the government, or in the form of a series of books whose content is limited to legislative acts. In either form, statutes are traditionally published in chronological order based on date of enactment. A universal problem encountered by lawmakers throughout human history

2800-428: Was a member of the 13th Parliament of Singapore representing Aljunied GRC , criticised the legislation, saying that "ministers should not be the deciding body on what constitutes false matters". Pritam argued that the Government should still be able to take down false claims, however the courts should be the avenue which such orders can be legitimise, as an understanding of legislation was that it gave "broad latitude to

2856-427: Was a rising trend of retrechments among the Singaporean professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETS). SDP filed an appeal to MOM, however was rejected. SDP then chose to apply to the High Court to cancel the order that is set against it. On 22 January 2020, TOC , as well as Singaporean activist Kirsten Han and Yahoo! Singapore were issued with correction orders by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) over

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2912-411: Was blocked in Singapore 17 February 2020 after Tan refused to update posts relating to COVID-19 as false and add a declared online location notice to the page. Facebook was ordered to do so under POFMA and said they found the block "deeply concern[ing]". Tan created additional accounts to circumvent the block. Legal action cannot be taken against Tan as he lives outside of Singapore's jurisdiction. During

2968-403: Was not unconstitutional. It also found that a part of the SDP's orders was invalid while the rest of SDP's statements and TOC 's were false. However, on the same day of the release of the judgement, MOM issued a new Correction Order to cover the invalidated portion of the previous Correction Order. During the parliamentary debate over the proposed Act, Pritam Singh of the Workers' Party , who

3024-470: Was reportedly in difficulties. Bowyer placed the correction notice when he received the Direction. The PSP subsequently protested, stating that "the Act falls short of the values of transparency, independence and accountability" and that it could be used by ministers to declare a piece of news to be "falsehood, without requiring any justification, criteria or standards". Ministry of Law refuted stating that

3080-468: Was tabled in parliament for first reading. The Ministry of Law stated that the legislation seeks to protect the society from deliberate online falsehoods created by malicious actors by targeting falsehoods, not opinions and criticisms, nor satire or parody. It defines a falsehood as a statement of fact that is false or misleading. After concerns were raised about the Bill's scope, ministers gave reassurances that

3136-406: Was the only political party to win any seats, and has always formed the Government of Singapore . From Singapore's independence in 1965, to 1981, the People's Action Party (PAP) won every single seat in every election held, forming a parliament with no elected opposition MP for almost two decades. In Singapore, opposition politicians and trade unionists were detained in prison without trial before

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