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SINGAPORE – Facebook has said it does not have a policy that prohibits alleged fake news, after calls to remove a post making allegations against Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the Government in relation to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
Despite a request to do so by the Infocomm Development Media Authority (IMDA), the social media giant refused to take down a post by socio-political site States Times Review which linked to an article on its site.
The Nov 5 article – titled “Lee Hsien Loong becomes 1MDB’s key investigation target”- suggested Malaysia had signed several unfair agreements with Singapore in exchange for Singapore banks’ assistance in laundering 1MDB funds.
The IMDA also issued a notice to States Times Review to take down the article by 5pm last Friday (Nov 9), which the website failed to do.
The authority said the article is considered prohibited content under the Internet Code of Practice, as it had undermined public confidence in the Government’s integrity.
In response to queries from The Straits Times asking why Facebook had not acceded to IMDA’s request, a spokesman for Facebook said it had a responsibility to handle any government request to restrict alleged misinformation “carefully and thoughtfully”, and that this approach is consistent with its approach to government requests elsewhere.
However, she added that Facebook does not have a policy that prohibits alleged falsehoods, “apart from in situations where this content has the potential to contribute to imminent violence or physical harm”.
The Law Ministry, which had described the States Times Review post as false and defamatory, had previously said Facebook’s refusal to take down the post was proof of the need for legislation against deliberate online falsehoods.
“Facebook cannot be relied upon to filter falsehoods or protect Singapore from a false information campaign,” it said in a statement on Friday (Nov 13).
In a statement on Tuesday night to The Straits Times, the Ministry of Law said Facebook had given many public assurances that it was committed to combating online falsehoods.
With this in mind, the Law Ministry said “we are disappointed that Facebook has not backed up its promises to combat online falsehoods with action”.
The ministry noted that in April last year, Facebook said that it was “committed to doing everything we can to reduce the spread of false news to as close to zero as possible”.
Then earlier this year, Facebook’s written representation to the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods said “we believe that reducing the spread of misinformation and false news is a shared responsibility between public authorities, tech companies, newsrooms and classrooms”.
Facebook also gave assurances that it would work closely with the Singapore authorities to swiftly address online falsehoods, the Law Ministry added.
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