Under The Angsana Tree: Five years of Pofma since 2019

How has the law been used to combat fake news?

The highest number of Pofma-related directives was issued in 2020

When a Facebook page made claims in April 2020 that the Singapore Government had covered up Covid-19 case numbers to reduce public panic, the authorities invoked the fake news law on the same day to rebut the falsehood.

It was one of the swiftest uses of the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) in the five years since the law came into force on Oct 2, 2019. The Straits Times looked at every Pofma directive issued by the authorities since that date to understand what content might trigger a Pofma order, and how the Government might react to fake news from various sources – issues that saw robust debate ahead of the law’s passing. Of 163 orders issued so far under the Act, over a quarter were related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The most orders issued in a year – 65 – was in 2020, when the pandemic started.

Much was at stake then, and the law allowed the Government to nip falsehoods in the bud quickly, experts told ST. Pofma was passed in Parliament on May 8, 2019, and assented to by then President Halimah Yacob on June 3 that year. It had been a long road to get to that point.

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Singapore's fake news law passed

The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act was passed in Parliament on Wednesday

The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) was passed in Parliament on Wednesday (8 May), bringing to a close a process which began with the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods holding public hearings early last year.

The new law comes as governments around the world grapple with the spread of fake news, and its potential impact to sow social discord or even political upheavals such as affecting the outcome of elections.

The Singapore government has said that the new law will help society guard against malicious actors who knowingly spread harmful falsehoods and act against public interest. It has stressed that the law targets falsehoods, not opinions and criticisms, nor satire or parody.

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