Tech giants are dismayed after Singapore proposed laws against "fake news that gives the government the authority to order the removal of content and impose hefty fines. Critics of the laws believe that they violate the users' freedom of speech.
Last week, the Singaporean government announced the bill that contains policies that include the power for the governing body to order social media sites like Facebook to place notifications to posts that the authorities believe to be false. They can also impose the removal of the said content.
According to the new bill, if the content of the posts deems malicious and threatening to Singapore's interests, the government will implement fines of up to Sg$1 million. The government can also imprison an individual for 10 years.
The Singaporean government believes that it is necessary to end the circulation of falsehoods which could spread divisions in its culturally-diverse city-state. Singapore has long been criticized to restrict civil liberties.
The press freedom groups and the tech companies with investments in the city condemns the new law as they claim that it suppresses the online discussions of the users. According to the Asian coalition, an industry whose members includes tech giants Facebook, Google, and Twitter, as the most far-reaching legislation of its kind to date, this level of overreach poses significant risks to freedom of expression and speech.
Facebook's vice president of public policy in the Asia Pacific, Simon Milner, expressed his concern about the possibility of being compelled to remove content. He said in his statement that giving people a place to express themselves freely and safely is important to us and we have a responsibility to handle any government request to remove alleged misinformation carefully and thoughtfully.
The internet is one of the outlets for free speech in Singapore and aside from it, there are other local alternative news sites that are critical with the authorities than the traditional corporate media.
The city-state is among the many nations that push to regulate the internet and end the spread of fake news. The Singaporean government emphasized that the only response to the spread of fake news is to order the "corrections" to be placed alongside falsehoods instead of placing individuals in jail or in courts.
The law and home affairs minister, K. Shanmugam, posted on Facebook that the proposed law targets false statements of fact, not opinions and criticisms. He said that disagreement over truth and falsity will be decided by the courts
