More Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) orders have been issued, all of which are related to the increased speculation and rumours over the Wuhan virus.
On Jan. 31, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong instructed the POFMA Office to issue a correction direction against AB-TC City News.
The website falsely claimed that 16 people in Singapore have contracted the Wuhan virus, with five Singaporeans contracting it without having been to China.
According to government fact-checker website Factually, there has been no local transmission of the Wuhan virus in Singapore, as of 9pm on Jan. 30, 2020.
Factually also said that all confirmed cases in Singapore to date are Chinese nationals who travelled from Wuhan.
The number of confirmed cases in Singapore currently stands at 13.
AB-TC City News is required to carry a correction notice along with its article.
Website deleted its article
As of 9:45am on Jan. 31, not only did AB-TC City News publish the correction notice, it also deleted its previous article.
Here's a screen shot of its previous article that contained falsehoods for comparison.
Screen shot from AB TC City News.
Correction directions issued even though Facebook posts were taken down
Gan also issued correction directions to Lim Tean, leader of the People's Voice party and Facebook group "Say No to PAP".
Both parties had shared the article, and both parties have taken it down from their Facebook pages.
However, according to the POFMA Office:
"While both parties have taken down their Facebook posts containing the falsehood, they are still required to carry a correction notice on their respective Facebook pages.
This will ensure that persons who had viewed their posts are informed of the facts."
Here's a screen shot of the post that Lim shared, including the AB TC City News article, which contained the false claims.
Both "Say No to PAP" and Lim have complied with the correction directions and put up new Facebook posts that include the link to Factually, although Lim's link appears to lead to a broken web page, as of 10:45am on Jan. 31.
States Times Review (again)
Separately, also on Jan. 31, Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing instructed the POFMA Office to issue a correction direction to Alex Tan, editor of the States Times Review (STR).
STR had published an article claiming that Senior Minister of State for Health and Transport Lam Pin Min had "confirmed" that Singapore had run out of surgical face masks, and shared that article to Facebook on Jan. 30, at 10:10am.
But this is false.
Factually stated that the picture STR used, from Lam's Facebook post, clearly shows Lam in a warehouse with part of the government stockpile of surgical masks.
Lam's post also states that there are enough masks if people use them "sensibly and responsibly".
Chan also announced in a press conference on Jan. 30 that the government would distribute more than 5.2 million masks to Singaporean households.
Tan is required to add a correction notice to provide his readers with the facts.
Simultaneous POFMA directions to both the publisher and Facebook
Chan also instructed the POFMA Office to issue a targeted correction direction to Facebook, requiring it to add a correction notice to the STR post.
This is not the first time that Tan has been the subject of a POFMA correction direction, but the first time that Tan and Facebook have been issued a correction direction and a targeted correction direction simultaneously.
Previously, Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam instructed the POFMA Office to issue a correction direction to Tan on Nov. 28, 2019.
Tan did not comply.
Shanmugam then instructed the POFMA Office to issue a targeted correction direction to Facebook, which complied and added the correction notice.
Exemptions on General Correction Directions now lifted
The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) also ordered a lift on the temporary exemption for general correction directions (GCD) for certain social media platforms, in light of the heightened situation caused by the Wuhan virus.
The platforms include:
- Google Search
- Baidu
- HardwareZone (operated by SPH Magazines)
This means that if one user is issued a correction direction by the government, then the social media platform must disseminate a correction notice to all the other users in Singapore on that same platform, or those users specified by the direction.
Previously, these social media outlets were granted a temporary exemption from the GCD requirements.
However, MCI said in its statement: "This is critical given the evolving situation with the Wuhan Coronavirus. The government is prepared to use all tools at its disposal to provide the public with accurate and up-to-date information, and to deal with falsehoods that may cause panic or confusion."
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Top image via screen shot from STR's Facebook page and Pixabay.