Singapore’s fake news law could hamper digital innovation, says Google

SINGAPORE: Google said an antifake news law passed by Singapore’s parliament could stunt innovation, a quality that the city-state wants to nurture under plans to expand its tech industry.

Singapore’s parliament on Wednesday passed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, a law criticised by rights groups, journalists and tech firms over fears it could be used to clamp down on freedom of speech.

The passage of the law comes at a time when Singapore, a financial and transport hub, has been making efforts to position itself as regional centre for digital innovation.

Google said the law could hamper those efforts.

“We remain concerned that this law will hurt innovation and the growth of the digital information ecosystem,” the company said in response to a query from Reuters.

“How the law is implemented matters, and we are committed to working with policymakers on this process.”

The law will require online media platforms to carry corrections or remove content the government considers to be false, with penalties for perpetrators running as high as prison terms of up to 10 years or fines up to S$1mil (RM3.04mil).

The law minister has said the Bill will not affect free speech. Singapore says it is vulnerable to fake news because of its position as a global financial hub, its mixed ethnic and religious population and widespread Internet access.

“We remain concerned with aspects of the new law which grant broad powers to the Singapore executive branch to compel us to remove content they deem to be false and to push a government notification to users,” Simon Milner, Facebook’s Asia-Pacific vice-president of public policy, said.

Milner said Facebook hoped that the ministry’s reassuring statements led to a “proportionate and measured approach in practice”.

Facebook and Singapore clashed late last year when the company refused to remove a post of an online article about the city-state’s banks and Malaysia’s scandal-linked 1MDB state fund, that the government said was “false and malicious”.