Singapore Bans Fake News

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fountainhall

Singapore Bans Fake News

Post by fountainhall »

Fake News has become a rallying cry of the Trump White House. But then it was also the rallying cry of Hitler and other mass murderers. And it is alive today where dictators rule. How to control it or stop it altogether has been the subject for discussion by various think tanks but no-one has come up with anything approaching a solution - until now.

The island state of Singapore is known for its government's sometimes heavy-handed efforts to maintain social order and stability, Now it has taken the lead with fake news. New and controversial laws have been passed giving the government sweeping powers to get rid of it.
The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation bill was passed by lawmakers on Wednesday and will come into force in the next few weeks.

The government can now order platforms to remove what it deems to be false statements that are "against the public interest", and to post corrections.

Authorities say the bill protects citizens from fake news.

But critics say it poses a serious threat to civil liberties.

It is also unclear how it could be enforced in some instances, such as policing content in encrypted apps.

The government has emphasised that the law would not be used to target opinions, but only falsehoods that could prove damaging.

"Free speech should not be affected by this bill," Law Minister K Shanmugam told parliament, adding that the law is aimed at tackling "falsehoods, bots, trolls, and fake accounts".

It bans the spread of what the government decides are false statements against the public interest. A person found guilty of doing this in Singapore could be fined heavily and/or jailed for up to five years.

It also bans the use of fake accounts or bots to spread fake news - this carries penalties of up to S$1m (£563,000, $733,700) and a jail term of up to 10 years.
Since its unveiling last month, the new Law has attracted increasing criticism from many sources since, it has been claimed, it amounts to a threat to freedom of expression. The law permits access to apps like one of the most popular in Singapore, WhatsApp.
On Tuesday, a minister said in parliament that the private nature of such apps meant they were "ideal platforms" for the spread of falsehoods as they could be hidden from public view, and noted that they could reach "hundreds or thousands of strangers at a time".

"Closed platforms, chat groups, social media groups, can serve as a public megaphone as much as an open platform," said Senior Minister of State for Law Edwin Tong . . .

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, called the idea of the Singapore government policing private chats "frankly insane".

"This is really moving towards a Big Brother style of control and censorship project," he told the BBC. "It's a direct threat to freedom of expression and is something the entire world should be alarmed about.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48196985

Singapore has always gone its own way. In Lee Kuan Yew's day, the moment a newspaper or magazine criticised him it was slapped with a heavy lawsuit which he generally won. What the rest of the world thinks of this fake news ban is unlikely to have any effect! Not surprisingly, Singapore is ranked #151 out of 180 countries in this year's World Press Freedom Index.
Jun

Re: Singapore Bans Fake News

Post by Jun »

Press & media freedom is one of the essential requirements of a proper democracy.

However, before the internet the press consisted of large newspaper organizations. To reach a wide audience, articles needed to be in such publications and most of the time, these publications recognized that they needed to report accurately in order to reach a wide audience. Hence, there was some level of quality control.

Now, in the era of Facebook, Twitter etc, it seems anyone can post any fake news and if it gets promoted by a herd of followers who WANT to believe it, the story is widely circulated. So great for promoting extremism & misinformation.

How to solve that without permitting governments to stop legitimate criticism of the government is a good question. I don't have the answer.
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Re: Singapore Bans Fake News

Post by Captain Kirk »

No possible way to ban fake news. Clearly anything said against the government will be deemed fake and that's what it's all about.
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Re: Singapore Bans Fake News

Post by ceejay »

May I ask, Fountainhall, how you know this to be true and not fake news?
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fountainhall

Re: Singapore Bans Fake News

Post by fountainhall »

Come to think about it, I didn't think about it!! I guess Zukerberg probably knows.
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