The Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods has released its 200-page-long report making recommendations to the government on what needs to be done to combat the growing phenomenon of deliberate online falsehoods.

The committee had earlier this year invited members of the public to give written submissions of their views on the issues, and some of these individuals and groups were then invited to appear at hearings in front of the committee to further elaborate on and clarify their submissions.

PJ Thum's hearing

Of those invited, one of the most notable was historian Thum Ping Tjin (PJ Thum) whose Mar. 29 hearing lasted six hours.

In his written submission, Thum had accused politicians of the People's Action Party of being a "clear source of fake news". He stated in his submission that politicians lied when they said that arrests under Operation Coldstore were done so on the basis of national security.

Committee member as well as Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam spent much of the six hours asking Thum for proof of the assertions he made in his submission.

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Thum's views "given no weight"

In the 200-page report, the committee included a paragraph under "Other matters" which stated that it had given no weight to Thum's views as the committee "does not find Dr Thum to be a credible representor".

Academic credentials misrepresented

It said that Thum "misrepresented his academic credentials in his evidence, to suggest that he held more distinguished roles at Oxford University (e.g. a “visiting professorship”) than the unpaid positions he held, and visiting scholar arrangements he obtained in return for paying a fee".

It added that Thum's claim that "his repeated misrepresentations were unintentional (e.g. a “typographical oversight”) is not believable".

The committee goes on to say that Thum "has clearly lied".

Did not substantiate his written submission

The committee wrote that Thum had "admitted that he had not read or had chosen not to give any weight to accounts by senior cadres of the Communist Party of Malaya that he acknowledged contradicted" his thesis that Operation Coldstore had no national security basis.

The committee also noted that Thum had not explained why he chose to disregard those accounts.

The report also noted that even though Thum submitted additional follow-up representation, he did not provide any follow-up documents to "substantiate his claim that he had indirectly dealt with contradictory evidence in his publications".

No one else singled out

The committee did not mention any other individual in its report whose representations they decided to ignore completely.

It heard representations from over 65 individuals and organisations in hearing sessions lasting a total of 50 hours.

It did note, however, that the Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders were invited for oral representations but both did not attend.

Top photo: file screenshot from video