November 23, 2019, 11:32 PM
Facebook has removed a National University of Singapore (NUS) students' group fake page for "violating our authenticity policies", a company spokesperson told Mothership.sg on Nov. 23.
The removal comes a day after the Press Secretary to the Minister of Home Affairs, Goh Chour Thong, issued a statement on Nov. 22 to rebut the Facebook posts by the fake page, NUSSU – NUS Students United.
Goh said the NUSSU fake page had “misleadingly” quoted Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam in their graphic to give a “false impression” of what he said.
Goh added that it was a misuse of Shanmugam's words and directly contradicted what the minister had said in Parliament.
Fake page asked potential PAP candidate to resign from firm if she were to contest in GE
On Nov. 17, the NUSSU fake page shared the following graphic, asserting that a potential PAP candidate had to resign from executive positions in consultancy firm ROHEI before running for elections, as politics and religion should not mix.
Pic from NUSSU.
In another post, the NUSSU fake page quoted the late Lee Kuan Yew on religion and politics, adding that it would not hesitate to call out anyone whom they feel crosses this line, regardless of party affiliation.
Page run by fake accounts
Mothership.sg understands that upon Facebook investigation, the page was found to be run by fake accounts.
The removal of fake accounts has caused the page to be unpublished.
Source: Facebook screenshot.
Fake accounts violate Facebook's authenticity policy, which falls under Facebook's community standards.
According to its community standards, Facebook users are not supposed to misrepresent their identities by using false names or false dates of birth.
Mothership.sg also understands that the page was not unpublished because of the content that was posted on the page.
The page has in fact responded and criticised Goh's statement before it was unpublished.
Goh on NUSSU: Deliberately misleading
In the statement last night, Goh also pointed out that NUSSU was not officially affiliated with NUS, and said that its name was "disingenuously chosen".
He said that the page is "run by people with no integrity, bent on sowing discord and hatred".
The Home Affairs and Law Minister also shared the statement on his Facebook page last night.
Top photo from Facebook and Getty Images.
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