TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsSingapore introduces bill to fight 'foreign interference'
The Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill targets content that "can cause immediate and significant harm in Singapore, such as inciting violence or causing hostility between groups", the home ministry said.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken Dec.2, 2019. (Reuters/Johanna Geron)
S
ingapore's government introduced a bill in parliament on Monday to prevent what it called foreign interference in domestic politics, which proposes empowering authorities to issue take-down orders against "hostile information campaigns".
The Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill targets content that "can cause immediate and significant harm in Singapore, such as inciting violence or causing hostility between groups", the home ministry said.
If social media companies failed to comply with requests, Internet service providers may be ordered to block harmful content locally. The bill also proposes blocking downloads of applications used to spread such content.
"We have also seen many instances in recent years where social media and communications technologies were used by entities to mount HICs against other countries," the ministry said, referring to hostile information campaigns.
It described those as "covert, coordinated and sophisticated" activities with aims like manipulating public opinion, subverting democratic institutions, polarising society, or influencing election outcomes.
The ministry said the law would not apply to Singaporeans expressing political views, unless they were agents of a foreign entity.
Neither would it apply to foreign individuals or foreign publications "reporting or commenting on Singapore politics, in an open, transparent and attributable way", even if critical of Singapore or its government.
