[kictanet] Fwd: [Internet Policy] Singapore to table (aka present in British English) fake news bill Monday

[Barrack Otieno]

Listers,

Might be of interest.

Regards

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ang Peng Hwa (Prof) <TPHANG at ntu.edu.sg>
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2019 17:27
Subject: [Internet Policy] Singapore to table (aka present in British
English) fake news bill Monday
To: ISOC Internet Policy <internetpolicy at elists.isoc.org>


Hi.



The Prime Minister of Singapore a couple of hours ago announced that the
government will present the Protection from Online Falsehoods and
Manipulation Bill on Monday.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/fake-news-laws-be-tabled-monday-hold-online-news-sources-platforms-accountable-pm-lee



According to the news report, the bill “will give the Government the power
to compel online news sources and platforms to show corrections or display
warnings about online falsehoods, and — in extreme and urgent cases — take
down an errant article.”



There was a Select (aka special and public) Committee on Deliberate Online
Falsehoods  https://www.parliament.gov.sg/sconlinefalsehoods that had
recommended in September 2018 that the Government take action. Although
most of the testimonies were public, there were closed door sessions too
and reports about these seem to suggest there were disinformation campaigns
targeted at Singapore.



Facebook came under withering questioning at the Select Committee hearing.
(A two-hour video on Facebook (where else) is at
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10155207544022115.)



A couple of observations:

   1. Several of us had pointed out that in Singapore, the group that
   spreads fake news is the elderly, parents and grandparents. And our kind of
   fake news is laughable by Russian standards—eg plastic rice is sold in the
   supermarket. And parents and grandparents pass on the hoax out of concern.
   The Bill does not capture this group. It is apparently not aimed at private
   but public communication.
   2. The power to determine facticity apparently lies with the Government.
   3. The sanctions come across as pretty mild—corrections or warnings. And
   taking down only in extreme and urgent cases.
   4. The Bill will not cover the case of the videos of the NZ shooting
   where Google staffers were manually blocking and deleting the videoclips as
   they were being uploaded. They were from the live streaming and so were not
   false even if they were in poor taste.



Regards,

Peng Hwa ANG

[image: id:image001.png at 01D31147.941BB3B0]*ANG* Peng Hwa (Professor) | Wee
Kim Wee School of Communication and Information | Nanyang Technological
University *|* WKWSCI #02-05, 31 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637718  | Tel:
(65) 67906109 GMT+8h | Fax: (65) 6792-7526 | Editor, Asian Journal of
Communication | Web:
http://research.ntu.edu.sg/expertise/academicprofile/Pages/StaffProfile.aspx?ST_EMAILID=TPHANG
Past President ICA | ICA 69th Annual Conference Washington DC, May 2019
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