Under The Angsana Tree: Law to combat fake news to be introduced next year

A new law to fight fake news will be Introduced next year and the government will be consulting stakeholders in the second half of this year on it, Singapore's Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said on Monday. Foto: ST file

Giving the keynote address at a conference titled "Keep It Real: Truth & Trust In The Media", Mr Shanmugam said the government has to maintain a strong climate of trust, & be able to counter misinformation spread online.

He said the authorities must be equipped to deal with current challenges & added that society, the media and Internet companies also have a role to play.

He revealed that an earlier survey showed more than nine in 10 Singaporeans supported stronger laws to ensure fake news is removed or corrected.

related: Singapore 'highly susceptible' to threat of fake news: Shanmugam

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Where is Singapore in its War on Fake News?

This week, Singapore’s Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam made headlines when he suggested that the city-state may introduce new legislation to tackle fake news next year. His comments, made during a keynote speech at a conference on the subject, reflect the growing concerns in both the city-state and the region more generally about the threat.

Singapore is by no means the only country contending with the fake news problem in Southeast Asia or even Asia more broadly, as I have noted earlier this week (See: “Winning Asia’s War on Fake News). Indeed, even neighboring governments like Malaysia and Indonesia have been mulling steps to crack down on the challenge, and Asian governments are discussing further measures that can be taken further down the line.

But Singaporean officials, including Shanmugam himself, have been publicly and privately emphasizing the dire consequences of fake news to the country specifically, including generating unnecessary public alarm, diverting limited resources, and harming the reputations of individuals and institutions.

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Keep it Real: Truth & Trust in the Media

The Straits Times and WAN-IFRA in partnership with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, Canada in Singapore, Facebook, Google, Konrad Adenaeur Stiftung and Singapore Management University present Keep it Real: Truth and Trust in Media.

The rise of fake news has become a pressing danger to modern societies. This timely two-day event brings together policymakers, news industry players and other stakeholders to explore concrete initiatives designed to fight the spread of misinformation in Asia.

From deliberate hoaxes created to cause mischief or make money, to media outlets re-circulating unverified or erroneous content, the misinformation ecosystem can take on many different faces. Often, people may not even know they are being exposed to questionable facts.

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Fake news law direly needed in Singapore?

I refer to Sulaiman Daud’s article “We hope the Select Committee on fake news pays attention to NMP Kok Heng Leun’s speech” (Mothership, Jan 12).

It states that “We hope the Select Committee on fake news pays attention to NMP Kok Heng Leun’s speech. The NMP with the arts background went against the grain and raised some meaningful...While supportive of the motion, NMP and theatre veteran Kok Heng Leun raised a number of concerns that are worth looking at more in-depth.

Kok said that the Select Committee should not focus on errors made when one party has an honest belief in the facts, but instead on deliberate, malicious falsehoods.

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Shanmugam sets out strategies in battle against fake news

The battle against fake news needs to be fought on several fronts

Home Affairs & Law Minister K. Shanmugam made the point yesterday as he underlined the importance of strengthening media literacy, even as Singapore prepares to introduce new legislation next year to curb fabricated stories.

He, however, felt platforms like Google & Twitter "bear significant responsibility" in tackling inappropriate content, including fake news, while the media plays a key role in being a trusted source of news.

Mr Shanmugam set out these battlefronts in his opening address at a conference on fake news, at which he announced pending laws against such falsehoods. The two-day forum is organised by The Straits Times and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.

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What Singapore Is Doing to Combat Fake News

In April of last year, the Singaporean government announced their intent to address the problem of fake news in a more effective manner. K Shanmugam, Law and Home Affairs Minister, said that this would be further elaborated when a review of the issue is completed.

Mr. Shanmugam admitted that while the country definitely has a problem with fake news, it has not yet reached that of global levels. However, he stressed that current Singaporean laws are ineffective to fully address the problem of fake news, which can be very dangerous and can spread quickly.

Mr. Shanmugam used the now-defunct website The Real Singapore (TRS) as an example of sites that publish falsehoods for profit, as well as the States Times Review, which erroneously reported that very few people had attended former President SR Nathan’s funeral.

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Select Committee MPs named

The select committee tackling the threat of fake news will be chaired by Charles Chong (top row, centre) and consists of (clockwise from top left) Chia Yong Yong, K Shanmugam, Desmond Lee, Pritam Singh, Rahayu Mahzam, Seah Kian Peng, Janil Puthucheary, Sun Xueling and Edwin Tong. FOTOS: ST FILE, GOV.SG, LIN ZHAOWEI FOR THE STRAITS TIMES, LIANHE ZAOBAO, UNITY HEALTH SEMINAR WITH LIANHE WANBAO

The names of the MPs who will form the Select Committee that will look into ways Singapore can tackle online fake news were announced yesterday, one day after Parliament voted for its formation.

The 10-member list was unveiled by Deputy Speaker Charles Chong, who will chair the committee.

The rest comprise 3 office-holders, four People's Action Party (PAP) MPs, one Workers' Party MP & a Nominated MP (NMP).

related:
Fake news and its real consequences
Select Committee to examine fake news threat in Singapore

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Problem of fake news could get worse: Desmond Lee

With technological advances allowing computer software to mimic facial movements & the manipulation of audio and video clips, the problem of “fake news” could get worse, said Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee on Monday (Nov 13).

“This means that even videos that look real, can very well be fake,” he said, adding it could undermine the trust that many still retain in images and sound recordings.

While regulations are not the silver bullet, he said laws are needed because the efforts by tech companies have been inadequate. “Self-regulation does not seem to be a viable solution,” said Mr Lee at the annual lecture of the Association of Muslim Lawyers.

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Schools join fight against fake news

To fight fake news, tertiary institutions have introduced lessons to help students differentiate fact from fiction.

3 polytechnics and three universities told The New Paper they recently introduced courses to tackle the growing problem, which has worsened globally.

This move is timely as the Government steps up its own battle against fake news (see report, above).

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Singapore’s War on Fake News in the Spotlight with New Committee

On Wednesday, Singapore’s parliament agreed to set up a new select committee to study what the government has characterized as “deliberate online falsehoods.” The move is just one of several steps that the Southeast Asian state has taken in its response to the growing challenge of fake news, in spite of various concerns raised by some opponents.

Singapore, like some of its other neighbors such as Malaysia and Indonesia, has become increasingly aware of the growing magnitude of the challenge of fake news (See: “Asia’s War on Fake News”). As part of this, the country’s top officials have been publicly and privately emphasizing the dire consequences of fake news to the country specifically – including generating unnecessary public alarm, diverting limited resources, and harming the reputations of individuals and institutions – as well as considering new measures that can be taken.

As I have noted previously in these pages, several moves have in fact already been underway in the cyber realm more broadly, including not just the consideration of new laws, which often dominates the headlines, but also creating a new cyber agency, boosting cooperation with other countries as well as conversations about the extent to which social media networks should be regulated.

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Governments, tech companies trying various ways to combat ‘fake news’

In the United States, tech companies like Google and Facebook are required to disclose the parties purchasing online political advertising and who their target audiences are. foto: Reuters

From laws that require those who put up political advertisements to declare their sources of funding, to those compelling social networks to take down defamatory content & hate speech, countries worldwide have taken steps to tackle the global scourge of online falsehoods.

Social media companies operating in Germany face fines of up to S$79.5 million if they do not take down illegal, slanderous or defamatory comments & posts within 24 hours of such content being reported.

In the United States, tech companies like Google & Facebook are required to disclose the parties purchasing online political advertising and who their target audiences are.

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Would you know if you’ve been fed a deliberate online falsehood? Probably not

A woman surfs the Internet at work. (Photo: Pixabay)

The Singapore Parliament agreed to the formation of a Select Committee to study deliberate online falsehoods on Wed (Jan 10).

Speaking in Parliament, Law Minister K Shanmugam said the deliberate spread of online falsehoods is a serious problem today and Singapore is susceptible because of its high Internet penetration rates.

Even as public education remains a 1st line of defence, mechanisms need to be in place to respond swiftly to these falsehoods, said Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim who spoke in support of the motion.

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Fake news could cause people to be disillusioned: Shanmugam

Photo of Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam: Dhany Osman/Yahoo News Singapore

If left unchecked, the deliberate threat of online falsehoods may destabilise Singapore by exploiting racial and religious fault lines, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in Parliament on Wednesday (10 January).

“Wide spreading of falsehoods can drown out the facts, can cause people to be disillusioned, can be manipulated to create rifts and damage social cohesion,” said the minister. “Ultimately, if left unchecked, such deliberate spread of falsehoods can undermine trust in the country, in its institutions, in democracy and affect social cohesion.”

Shanmugam was speaking on his proposed motion that the House appoint a Select Committee to examine the causes and consequences of deliberate online falsehoods, and the countermeasures that will be required to prevent and combat them here.

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Singapore minister K Shanmugam calls out “fake news” sites

K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs & Minister for Law, has raised the red flag on the prevalence and impact of fake news in Singapore. In a recent Parliamentary discussion, addressing the issue, he talked about the real world consequences of fake news and hoaxes, if not corrected quickly.

“They can cause harm to Singaporeans, alarm to the public, emergency resources will have to be diverted and the reputation of businesses and people can be completely, unreasonably, unfairly damaged. All because some nasty people seek to profit from this,” Shanmugam said. In his speech, Shanmugam named websites such as All Singapore Stuff and States Times Review as websites which perpetuate fake stories, raised the potential impact fake news has on national security, on top of ill-profiteering.

Shanmugam added that current remedies to deal with falsehoods are limited and called them “ineffective as they were really looking at a time before the new age as it were”. He added: The circulation of falsehoods can go viral today very quickly. So we need to do more.

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“Fake news”?

I read with great interest that Minister of Home Affairs and Law, K Shanmugam has been appointed as one of the committee members to review the situation of fake news being disseminated in Singapore.

The Minister has in recent times, voiced his displeasure on alternative news sites, particularly, The Online Citizen (TOC) in Parliament, pointing that the publication engages in falsehoods, particularly against the police. So it is pretty likely that the Minister will include the past allegations against TOC in the report by the committee.

So as part of TOC's submission to the deliberation process, here is a look at some of the allegations made by the Minister in recent times.

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Combating fake news in Singapore

The scourge of fake news is a rather recent phenomenon that has serious ramifications for governance and the general well-being of citizens. Misinformation spread online through social media channels and Whatsapp are usually malicious in nature, calculated to undermined trust in the media and government, spread fear and panic, and sometimes simply to make money by garnering eyeballs. In some instances, fake news can even endanger lives.

What is the definition of fake news? There is no universally accepted definition and there are some concerns that governments or politicians may use the term loosely to label any unfavourable news as fake news. Wikipedia defines fake news as a type of yellow journalism that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media.

Minister for Law K Shanmugam took a shot at providing some clarity on this hot potato at the “Keep It Real: Truth and Trust in the Media” Forum on 19 June 2017. Clearly, fake news is not just confined to Singapore as he listed many overseas examples and noted how the EU, Germany, Israel and the UK are all studying ways to stem the flow of fake news.

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Bye Bye File-sharing

S’pore changing law to make ISPs block illegal sites

The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) is looking into blocking access to websites that blatantly infringe copyright material. Such websites that are targeted include Pirate Bay, which facilitate illegal transfers.

The blocking of access to such websites in Singapore could happen as early as year-end, if proposed changes to the Copyright Act are passed.

With the proposed changes, rights holders — such as movie studios — who feel aggrieved will only have to make a court application for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) — such as SingTel — to block access to websites.

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Fakes and Frauds

Singapore prepares legislation to confront fake news by 2018

Singapore plans to introduce legislation to tackle fake news next year, Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said on Monday.

“We will in the second half of this year consult with the stakeholders, the media, the legal profession, of course the internet companies, we have to work with them, and see what the contours or shape of the legislation ought to be,” Shanmugam told a forum on how to deal with fake news.

“Hopefully, we will have it in place next year or so,” he said in his opening address to the “Keep it real: truth and trust in the media” forum organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers and the local Straits Times newspaper. The minister expressed concern about misinformation that exploits racial and religious divides in Singapore’s multi-racial society.