Due to the Wuhan virus situation, there have been an much public alarm over the increasing number of confirmed cases and alleged sightings of suspected cases across Singapore.

The online space has been inundated with information related to the virus outbreak in the past week, and along with it, multiple falsehoods.

PM Lee: Glad to have POFMA during this time

During a visit to the National Centre of Infectious Diseases on Jan. 31, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told the press, in response to a question posed by Malay-language daily Berita Harian, that he is "very glad that we have POFMA (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act)".

This is due to the prevalent use of social media these days, a major difference between the Wuhan virus and the outbreak of SARS in 2003.

PM Lee also added that the government is aware that there are fear-mongers who make up stories and deliberately foment fear, uncertainty, and doubts on social media platforms like WhatsApp.

With POFMA, the government can act promptly against these falsehoods and also put out information as quickly as they can get and verify it.

PM Lee said the government wanted to make sure that: "There are sources of news which Singaporeans can trust, which are reliable and in which they will turn to."

Four corrections issued by POFMA in four days

The Wuhan virus situation has led to various falsehoods circulated online.

In response, various Ministers have issued Correction Directions through the POFMA Office.

In the past four days, several POFMA Correction Directions have been issued, including those against false rumours of a surgical mask shortage in Singapore, or the closure of Woodlands MRT due to a suspected case of Wuhan virus.

On Jan. 30, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) also ordered a lift on the temporary exemption for General Correction Directions for some social media platforms, such as Facebook and Baidu.

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.

Top photo by Zenn Tan