The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) criticised the Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), saying its current form "falls short" of the party's values.

In a public statement released on Dec. 10, PSP said that it is "founded on the tenets" of transparency, independence and accountability.

"Currently, POFMA empowers the Minister to declare a piece of news to be falsehood, without requiring any justification, criteria or standards. This does not measure up to the standards of Transparency and Accountability."

It added:

"And where the news involves the Government, it also fails the standard of Independence."

PSP: Courts should impose penalties

However, PSP agreed that the government needed some powers in order to curb the spread of viral fake news.

They supported the idea of allowing Ministers to "demand news purveyors" to post a link to a website where the government could provide facts to stop misinformation.

But PSP believes that only the courts should be the one to declare any news as falsehoods, and to impose penalties if necessary.

"The Courts would also have an established system and precedence of determining falsehood from its handling of cases like fraud, thereby ensuring Transparency and Accountability."

POFMA invoked for first time against PSP member

The government invoked POFMA for the first time against a PSP member, Brad Bowyer.

On Nov. 25, the Ministry of Finance issued a Correction Notice against a Facebook post by Bowyer.

Bowyer complied, adding a link to government fact-checking site Factually at the top of his post.

Its editor, Alex Tan, refused to comply.

Facebook then issued the notice on the post itself.

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Top image from PSP.