Facebook to be ordered to disable access for S’pore users to States Times Review’s page: MCI

SINGAPORE — The Government is instructing Facebook to disable access for Singapore users to the States Times Review’s (STR) Facebook page.

Communications and Information Minister S Iswaran has instructed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) Office to order the social media giant to take this action under Section 34 of Pofma, which took effect last October.

STR’s Facebook page has repeatedly conveyed falsehoods and has not complied with any of the Pofma directions that it has been served with, a statement from the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) said on Monday (Feb 17).

On Feb 15, STR’s Facebook page was served with a declaration stating that it was a declared online location (DOL) under Pofma. Since then, it has failed to carry the required notice.

MCI said that the DOL is intended “to warn visitors of the previous falsehoods that (the) page communicated”.

The declaration also makes an offence for its owner Mr Alex Tan to receive any benefits from operating the Facebook page and prohibit "the provision of financial support to it for the purposes of supporting, helping or promoting the communication of falsehoods".

An MCI spokesperson said this is the first time this particular disabling provision of Pofma has been used.

On Friday, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong instructed the Pofma Office to issue a correction direction to Mr Tan over a post about the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Pofma office said that several false statements were made in a post on the STR Facebook page on Feb 13. It then laid out the false statements made by Mr Tan in an article on Factually — a government fact-checking website — and debunked them.