Analysis of the protection from online falsehood and manipulation act 2019

Résumé du document

Ce devoir est une analyse de la loi singapourienne sur les fake news et la manipulation de l'information en ligne. Il reprend les grands éléments de cette loi et apporte une vision critique à la fois sur son efficacité et sur les risques qui peuvent en découler. Rédigé en anglais.

Extraits

[...] Singapore : Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 (POFMA) The Singaporean law on fake news was adopted by the parliament on May 2019. It is the outcome of a parlimentary commitee created in January 2018. It investigated the spread of misinformation within the country and found out that it posed a growing risk to the national cohesion, public confidence in government institutions, democracy and national sovereignty.1 The aim of the parlimentary committee proposals is to provide the necessary « scope, speed and adaptability » to combat the issue of misinformation in Singapore.2 To do so, the law establishes different crimes. [...]

[...] Coronavirus has put them to the test. » The Washington post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/exploiting-fake-news-laws-singapore-targets-techfirms-over-coronavirus-falsehoods/2020/03/16/a49d6aa0-5f8f-11ea-ac50-18701e14e06d_story.html India Education Diary, (12.02.2021). Fighting in the COVID-19 era, https://indiaeducationdiary.in/fighting-fake-news-in-the-covid-19-era/ La Trobe University, « Chapter 2 : Singapore's approch to online misinformation » p 14-25, Fighting fake news : A study of online misinformation regulation in the Asia Pacific. January 2021. [...]

[...] During the covid crisis out of 71 POFMA orders are related to covid false or misleading statements. However, lots of them are political and criticized the way the governement handles the situation ; 20 out of 71 POFMA orders involved statement about the government. In July 2020, during the run for the precidency POFMA orders targeted opposition political statements. The law also grants the effective power to the Ministers to silence critics during election campaigns for at least 9 days (delay for the recourse). [...]

[...] All those elements drive me to the conclusion that the POFMA law is a theat to freedom of expression. This assertion also has been made by several international human right groups such as Amnesty International. As a conclusion, I would said that the POFMA law is a powerful tool against fake news and disinformation (although it is obvisouly not bulletproof). However, for all that it does not create a better and safer climate online, only a censored one. References : Mahtani, Shibani. [...]

[...] Yet, the article also provides other punishments if the misinformation is prejudicial to the public order and the nation's interests at home and abroad. This last distinction, in my opinion, is problematic. Again, at first it seems like a reasonable subsection that sanctions harder breach of the peace and the public interest. However, if used maliciously, it sanctions any dissident voice. In that case, the fine maximum and imprisonment term are doubled. Those punishments are huge and do not seem to be reasonable. [...]