Facebook complied with a directive from the Singaporean government and added a correction to Alex Tan’s post. This is the first time the social media giants are exercising this aspect of their power.
What many are used to is receiving directives to take down a post. Or getting blocked from using some features or the service as a whole for some time. However, in the news story about the Australian writer, we see the service go a step further.
Alex Tan runs a Facebook page, States Time Review. It has been active since 2015 and reportedly has 53,000 likes and counting. The page criticises the Singaporean government most of the time. However, after the user made a post accusing the authorities of arresting a whistleblower, they didn’t sit it out.
They accused the writer of spreading falsehood as the information, they say, is incorrect. The arrest had not happened. But when the Sydney based Facebook user was contacted, he refused to withdraw the post. He, however, admitted that it may not have been an accurate statement.
Tan said that he had gotten wind of the arrest via a ‘tip-off’ when speaking to BuzzFeed. But he failed to comply when Facebook reached him.
This was when K. Shanmugam, the Singapore Minister of Home Affairs contacted Facebook. Through the Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation (POFMA) Act, he directed Facebook to do something about the post.
Failure to comply with this law would subject Facebook to a fine of SG$ 1 million an equivalent of $730,000. In addition, SG$ 100,000 ($73,000) would be applied each day the post stays up.
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So, with their hand forced, the company applied a label to the post. It said: “Facebook is legally required to tell you that the Singapore government says this post has false information”. But, this edit was only visible to users in Singapore.
Alex Tan praised the company when he heard of the correction via screenshots online. He said it had handled the pressure from the authorities well. He operates from Australia and is not concerned about the alteration with the Singaporean government.
A Facebook representative said it hopes the government will not try to use the law to stifle freedom of expression. But the Australian writer believes this is the plan considering the country’s reputation. He says:
“I believe they intend to exercise these powers during the election in a couple of months.”
Also, Alex shared the post on other mediums like Twitter, Linkedln, and Google Docs. So far, they have not contacted any of these other media giants.
Is this what is coming for those in other parts of the world? The crackdown on media expression gets stronger, while the political class enjoys more freedom. You may recall the company saying last month that it would not censor posts made by politicians, even when they are false.
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