the Protection on Online Falsehoods
and Manipulation Act (POFMA), Foreign
Interference (Countermeasures) Act, Online
Safety (Miscellaneous) Act, and most
recently the Online Criminal Harms Act
(OCHA). The notorious POFMA remains to
be the most used law against critics and
opposition politicians since its adoption
in 2019.
Still, 2023 may be the most challenging
ever in the history of the PAP because of
several scandals involving its MPs.
A scandal against well-known opposition
politician Leon Perera of the Workers’ Party
erupted after a video of an extramarital affair
with a fellow party member was circulated
around the same time that two PAP MPs
faced a similar scandal. This incident
also reinforced concerns about possible
surveillance by the government against
critics and opposition politicians.
2.
Legal and Policy
Developments
Singapore has been quite active in regulating
how its people access online space, mainly
through an evolving collection of laws. These
laws usually share the same characteristics
of having broad provisions that give authorities a wide scope in their application.
Fully implemented, these laws give the
government comprehensive control of
online narratives.
In 2019, the government adopted the
Protection on Online Falsehoods and
Manipulation Act (POFMA), which is dubbed
78
as the “anti-fake news” law. It allows authorities to police content on social media by
issuing “correction directions” for “false”
content. There is no clear criteria on how
the government selects or decides what
constitutes “false” content. Over the years,
the government has used the law against
dissidents, opposition politicians, and
online media, giving the government political
advantage for correcting the narratives.
In early October 2021, the government
passed the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act or FICA. The law, which
was passed without public consultation
within a span of three weeks, received
widespread condemnation for being
another repressive law that adds to the
government’s arsenal of political weapons.
In the name of protecting the country’s
political sovereignty from foreign interference, FICA gives the government power
to force internet service providers and social
media platforms to provide user information,
block content, and remove applications
used to disseminate content the government
considers as hostile. The law also allows
the government to label an individual or
entity as “politically significant persons”,
who then can be subjected to increased
scrutiny to compel disclosure of their funding
sources, and their affiliations with foreign
entities among other countermeasures.
FICA can be repressive towards journalists
and activists working in Singapore receiving
foreign funding. Singapore, as a country
under authoritarianism, can use this law
as a political weapon to silence these