Singapore Escalates Fight Against Spread of False Information on Social Media

By Jake Maxwell Watts

SINGAPORE -- In an effort to combat misinformation online, Singapore has passed a law requiring Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Twitter Inc. and other social-media companies with regional headquarters here to rapidly issue corrections when users post items the government deems false.

The law, passed by Parliament late Wednesday, goes further than existing or proposed restrictions in many other countries by giving power directly to politicians to distinguish truth from falsehoods. Lawmakers dismissed criticism from technology companies and rights groups, and had earlier solicited public input on the legislation in a series of hearings.

Singapore's leaders have said the Southeast Asian city-state is especially vulnerable to such abuse of social media because of a diverse religious and racial mix. Echoing concerns raised by politicians and governments in other countries, the island nation's leaders have accused tech companies of not doing enough to rein in damaging content.

The law's passage capped two days of debate. The legislation received the support of 72 members of Parliament, dominated by the People's Action Party, which has governed the city-state uninterrupted since independence in 1965. The opposition, which holds just nine seats, voted against the law, while three other members abstained.

The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill empowers the government to order tech companies to circulate corrections on content ministers deem to be false or misleading and potentially harmful to the public interest. In some instances, this would be required even if the offending content didn't originally appear on the companies' platforms, and it could also apply to traditional media.

Fines of up to one million Singapore dollars (US$733,600) can be issued for noncompliance. Other penalties include methods to cut off funding and advertising for offending publishers. The courts will decide on appeals, but compliance from tech companies is required within a matter of hours, far faster than any appeals process would take.

Debates "should be based on a foundation of truth, foundation of honor, and foundation where we keep out the lies. That's what this is about," Minister for Law K. Shanmugam said in Parliament.

The government has said the law is structured to ensure rapid action against damaging content before it goes viral. Relying on the courts or another intermediary would be too slow, the government has said.

After the law's passage, Google called for a full, transparent public consultation. "We remain concerned that this law will hurt innovation and the growth of the digital information ecosystem," Google said, adding that misinformation is a challenging issue that it is working hard to address.

Twitter said it wants to promote healthy conversation online but hopes that concerns raised by interested parties will be addressed by the government in implementation. Facebook said it is committed to reducing the spread of misinformation and recently launched a fact-checking service in Singapore, but expressed concern about the breadth of the government's powers.

The Asia Internet Coalition, a tech-industry group, said its members were committed to engaging with the Singapore government and it would work to assist with the law's implementation.

Rights advocates condemned the law, saying it gives a government with a record of using legislation to stifle political opposition power to be arbiter of truth. The law "will have a chilling effect on internet freedom throughout Southeast Asia," Human Rights Watch said.

The government has dismissed allegations that the law could be used to stifle political dissent and denied targeting opponents.

Where countries have enacted similar legislation, most have focused on content that breaks existing hate-speech laws rather than that deemed to be false. Last year, France passed a law to empower judges to remove false content during election campaigns, and Germany introduced legislation that imposes prison sentences and fines for failure to remove hate speech.

Write to Jake Maxwell Watts at jake.watts@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 09, 2019 10:29 ET (14:29 GMT)

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