The following statement is Mothership's response to the recommendations made by the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods:

Any effort that is made to ensure the primacy of truth must be welcomed.

We recognise that the issue of deliberate online falsehoods is a serious and complicated one that requires both non-legislative and legislative measures.

As one of the most connected and open countries in the world, it is our sincere hope that new legislative measures will adopt a practical, responsive and light-touch approach in regulating the Internet.

We note the recommendations by the Select Committee that the government should consider how it can support the objectives of holding alternative news platforms to the same professional standards as the mainstream media.

We look forward to seeing how some of these measures will eventually be implemented and hope that this process is dynamic and takes into account the views and responses from stakeholders, industry participants and Singaporeans.

We agree that there is a role for trusted fact-checking initiatives in combating deliberate online falsehoods and will do our part in the establishment of a fact-checking coalition in Singapore.

Our written representation can be found here.

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