Fake News and Disinformation: Singapore Perspectives

Abstract

Shashi Jayakumar, Benjamin Ang and Nur Diyanah Anwar analyse Singapore’s efforts combating online falsehoods and disinformation. They highlight the recently passed Protection from Online Falsehoods and Misinformation Act (POFMA) which makes it “an offence to intentionally communicate a false statement of fact, with the knowledge that it would cause the harms listed”, and which uniquely enables the authorities to compel social media platforms to publish rebuttals of specific falsehoods, called “Targeted Corrections Directions”. Additionally, they highlight the non-legal initiatives the Singapore government has taken to counter disinformation and safeguard social cohesion, via programmes such as the National Framework on Information, Media and Cyber Literacy and S.U.R.E. This creates guidelines for public organizations to spot fake news, and fact-checking resources teaching individuals to better judge the reliability of news sources. Their chapter concludes by highlighting the need to review the strategies currently used, and how laws, programmes and policies must be future-proof.