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The Online Citizen Asia (TOCA) editor Terry Xu's application to cancel a Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) correction direction has been rejected.

Made more false allegations against police in Facebook post

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) wrote in a May 22, 2023 press release that a correction direction was issued to the 40-year-old Xu Yuan Chen on May 7, 2023.

This was in response to his Apr. 30 Facebook post, the May 2 TOCA article, and the May 2 TOCA social media posts referring to the article.

The post was regarding a 2021 incident involving the police and an elderly woman at Yishun Avenue 5.

The correction direction was issued as Xu had made "more false allegations against the police" in the post.

Xu was directed to insert a correction notice, stating that the post contained false statements of fact, at the top of his Facebook post, and a link to a Factually article which sets out the facts.

He was also directed to post the correction notice as a new post on his Facebook page.

Xu filed an application to cancel the correction direction, but it was rejected by the Minister for Home Affairs.

MHA wrote: "The conditions for issuing the correction direction were satisfied, and the application did not disclose any grounds to the contrary."

MHA added that Xu has been notified of the rejection.

What happened in 2021

This is the second time that Xu has been issued a correction direction with regard to the incident at Yishun Avenue 5.

The incident, which happened on May 17, 2021, was filmed by an Instagram user.

Instagram user falsely claimed that police officers were harassing old woman

The user, who later posted the video as an Instagram story on May 18, alleged that police officers had "clustered an elderly auntie that took off her mask because she was feeling breathless".

The user further alleged that the police continued to tell off the elderly woman, even after she wore her mask, and someone else had to "salvage the situation".

Incident's facts

This is a summary of what happened on May 17, according to Factually:

• The police were responding to a 6:43pm call on May 17 about an unmasked elderly woman who appeared to be lost.
• The police reminded the elderly woman to wear her mask, as the prevailing Covid-19 measures at the time of the incident mandated mask wearing in public, and sought to help her find her way home.
• The elderly woman's daughter-in-law lodged a police report because of TOC's article, which spread falsehoods about the interactions between the police officers and the elderly woman, and their interviewing of the elderly woman without her consent.
• The police and MHA's statements accurately presented the facts in relation to the incident. The police also did not withhold any evidence that would disprove their narrative or provide false evidence to the court.

Factually is a site run by the Singapore government to debunk misinformation and disinformation.

Allegations were reproduced

The Online Citizen (TOC), TOCA's predecessor, and the online website Singapore Uncensored reproduced the Instagram user's claims on May 18.

The police debunked the video on May 19, after it made its rounds on social media, stating that the officers attending to the incident were helping the 85-year-old woman find her way home as she appeared to be lost.

Correction directions were issued

On May 21, the Instagram user, TOC, and Singapore Uncensored were issued a POFMA correction direction.

On May 25, the police released bodycam footage of the incident and further clarifications in a Facebook post.

TOC appealed against the correction direction, but it was dismissed by the High Court in 2022.

Xu and TOCA persisted in making false allegations

In a May 7, 2023 press release, MHA stated that Xu and TOCA have persisted in making false allegations regarding the incident, despite the government's clarifications and the High Court's findings on the matter.

MHA wrote: "Xu's attempts to rehash issues already considered by the court, and exploit a case involving an elderly and vulnerable woman, are contemptible."

TOCA facing another POFMA correction order

TOCA has also been issued a POFMA correction order regarding the false statements that were made in relation to the execution of Tangaraju s/o Suppiah on Apr. 26, 2023.

In a May 19 press release, MHA wrote that TOCA, as well as local activist Kirsten Han, anti-death penalty group Transformative Justice Collective, lawyer M Ravi, and former TOC editor Andrew Loh were each served a POFMA correction order.

The five parties have each put up social media posts and/ or articles containing false statements about Tangaraju's execution and they are:

• Tangaraju had requested an interpreter during the recording of his statement but was denied one.
• Tangaraju neither had an interpreter nor access to legal counsel during his trial.
• It was never pointed out to Tangaraju that Steven Chong JCA was the Attorney-General when decisions were taken by the Attorney-General’s Chambers in respect of Tangaraju’s case. The courts did not ascertain whether Tangaraju had any objection to Steven Chong JCA hearing matters relating to Tangaraju’s case.
• Tangaraju was convicted, and sentenced to hang, and later found to be not guilty.
• Several personal costs orders were made against M Ravi without justifiable basis, to penalise him for his work in death penalty cases.

With respect to TOCA, an article was put up on its website on Apr. 28, and several posts were put up on its social media platforms on the same day.

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Top image from Terry Xu/Facebook and via