SINGAPORE: Meta will be issued an order under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) over users’ reposting of false claims made by an anti-death penalty group, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Tuesday (Nov 5).
MHA said it was aware of 10 Facebook and 30 Instagram posts made by some individuals on Oct 23 and Oct 24, which reposted false statements made by Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) on Oct 2.
The false statements were published in an article on TJC’s website and posted on its Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X pages. They were in relation to the scheduling of executions in Singapore, and the prosecution of drug trafficking charges.
A correction direction was issued to TJC on Oct 5. TJC complied with the direction the next day and inserted a correction notice on its posts, stating that they contained false statements.
TJC had also previously been handed two POFMA correction orders for having made similar false statements regarding death row prisoners.
“By reposting the TJC Posts on Oct 23 and Oct 24, those individuals had chosen to communicate falsehoods that they knew or should have known contained false statements,” MHA said.
The ministry has instructed the POFMA Office to issue targeted correction directions to Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
The targeted correction directions require Meta to alert users who have seen the reposts that they contain false statements, MHA said.
Users will also have to be provided with the link to the government’s clarification.
“The clarification sets out the falsehoods and facts for the public to examine, without requiring the original posts to be removed. Readers can read both the original posts and the facts, and decide for themselves what is the truth,” the ministry added.
CNA has contacted Meta to ask if it has complied with the targeted correction directions.
As for why a correction order was issued only to Meta and not the individuals who reposted the false claims, MHA said it took a “practical and balanced approach”, given the large number of posts that reproduced the original falsehoods.
Targeted correction directions “would thus allow each post to be labelled expeditiously” without having to issue separate correction directions to each individual, MHA told CNA.
Meta is also required to notify users who had previously viewed the posts that they contain falsehoods, the ministry added.
