Has Singapore's fake news law passed the election test?

Singapore's fake news law is just nine months old but already it has been used to nip disinformation in the bud on a range of issues, from Covid-19 to immigration and economic projections. But the final days of campaigning for Friday's general election have provided one of its biggest tests yet.

When the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) came into force last October, one of the biggest concerns among domestic critics of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) was that the law would be used against the opposition during an election campaign. International rights groups claimed the law was another institutional hurdle put in place by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to trip the opposition.

The government vigorously denied those claims, pointing out that the law provided for top civil servants, not ministers, to wield executive powers during an election campaign.

With a day left in the nine-day official campaigning period, opposition politicians and analysts who spoke to This Week in Asia offered a mixed bag of views on the law's effect on the hustings.

Independent analysts said the need for Pofma during elections was not in dispute, though questions remained on the neutrality of civil service mandarins who make the first-instance decision on whether it should be invoked.

Since Pofma's executive powers were transferred to the civil servants on June 23 " when the president issued a writ of election on Lee's request " Pofma has been invoked six times.

Pritam Singh, leader of the Workers' Party who last year warned in parliament that Pofma could hang like the Sword of Damocles over the heads of PAP critics, said his party had found no reason to pull its punches because of the law.

"The reason we have not pulled our punches is [that] we believe that the national discourse should be conducted on the basis of objective facts," Singh said.

Singh, whose six MPs were the only opposition representatives in the last parliament, said its 21 candidates were repeatedly told "we are not in this to win through false information or through fear mongering".

Leaders of two other key opposition parties, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and the Progress Singapore Party (PSP), in contrast, had harsh words for the law.

The SDP's chairman Paul Tambyah said the law was "failing".

Remarks by Tambyah were at the centre of a Pofma blitz on Sunday. Four organisations, including the national broadcaster CNA, were ordered to carry a warning on their reports and videos and podcasts carrying remarks Tambyah had made in a forum on Friday.

The SDP's chairman Paul Tambyah. Photo: Getty Images alt=The SDP's chairman Paul Tambyah. Photo: Getty Images

The opposition politician, a global authority on infectious diseases, had claimed the Lee government might have discouraged Covid-19 testing among migrant workers in February " without consulting medical professionals.

The Pofma office, the law's administrator, published a joint press statement by the health and manpower ministries that said this was not true.

Asked about Pofma's general impact on the opposition, Tambyah said: "I think Pofma is failing. It has been used to intimidate ... but people are not really taking it seriously."

Also commenting on Tuesday was PSP chief Tan Cheng Bock, who said he had known since the law was enacted that it was "directed at us".

However, the 80-year-old opposition politician said the law could be still used to "my advantage", claiming it could be used to "ferret out information" from the PAP.

Apart from the correction orders served to the outlets that carried Tambyah's comments, the five other sets of Pofma directives involved posts discussing government spending for foreign students, and the SDP's claim that the Lee administration had plans to increase the population to 10 million from the current 5.7 million.

That claim and the PAP's fierce rebuttal have been among the campaign's most prominent flash points. The ruling party has said the SDP was using the false claim to scare monger. In a statement last week, the ruling party said the SDP chief Chee Soon Juan had conjured a bogeyman "out of thin air to befuddle, frighten and divide Singaporeans".

Lim Tean, the eccentric leader of the tiny, recently formed Peoples Voice party " a recipient of four previous Pofma orders " was also among those ensnared by the law during campaigning.

The Merlion statue in front of Singapore's business district. Photo: AP alt=The Merlion statue in front of Singapore's business district. Photo: AP

In each instance, the recipient of the Pofma notice had to amend their original post to prominently include a short statement that it contained false information, with a link to a page on the government's Factually.sg portal that explained why the authorities thought the post was false.

The law stipulates that ministers " or their permanent secretaries during elections " can only wield Pofma if two criteria are met " if there is a bona fide falsehood, classified as a statement of fact that is false or misleading, and if the use of the law is in the "public interest".

Pofma grants authorities a variety of tools to combat deliberate online falsehoods.

Among them are so-called "Part 3 directions" that can be served to individuals or organisations to force them to make corrections or take down posts, and "Part 4 directions" where social media companies and internet service providers can be directed to take action when the content creator does not comply with the earlier order.

Local political observer Mustafa Izzuddin said there was no dispute on the need for the law, even during heated hustings.

The senior analyst with the Solaris Strategies Singapore management consultancy echoed the PAP's stance that Pofma "elevated political discourse by ensuring that the facts are not falsified or manipulated".

"Pofma does not take a break just because there is an election and sees itself as being politically neutral with a specific aim of countering misinformation, disinformation and falsehoods," Mustafa said.

Garry Rodan, a veteran Singapore politics watcher who has been closely tracking the hustings, said the government was "right that accountability for inaccurate statements is important".

"The question is: how? Pofma has turned what could be a matter of political debate and contest over claims and words used by candidates into an administrative process under the state's auspices," said Rodan, an honorary professor at the School of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Queensland.

Another question about the law that could linger after the election is its clause that temporarily grants delegates to top civil servants executive powers.

"Perception matters in politics. The PAP has been in government since 1959 and has affected a close relationship between party and state, not least including the civil service where many senior political leaders have been recruited from," said Rodan.

"However professional civil servants may be, this does not mean we should expect the PAP's opponents to be without apprehension about the exercise of Pofma powers by 'alternative authorities' any less than the usual authorities."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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