Facebook had issued a correction notice to a post done on the social media platform that Singapore’s government claims to have false information. Singapore has its own ‘fake news law’ in the country which can condemn online platforms to change or remove online material which it deems to have false information and which is against the interest of the general public.
A post created on Facebook by fringe news website State Times Review was claimed to have false accusations and wrong information by the Singapore authorities. So it had asked Facebook to get in touch with the news website to change the information. The social media giant issued a note to the State Times Review that the Singapore government has legally asked you to change the information which they feel is wrong. The note was embedded on the bottom of the original post. The note is only visible to social media users in Singapore.
Prior to this incident, the State Times Review had posted information on the social media platform about a person who was arrested allegedly for whistleblowing and election rigging. The Singaporean government assured that no one has been arrested and accused STR of making false accusations against the election process in Singapore.
The authorities had directly contacted the editor Alex Tan to correct the wrong information on the posted material but he denied saying that he would not comply with orders from any foreign government. The authorities then had to contact Facebook to ask the editor to change the information.
The ‘fake news law’ was implemented by the Singaporean government in October. A person or any organization found guilty of posting any wrong information on the social media platforms related to the affairs of the country could face a hefty fine and a prison sentence up to 5 years.
