Singapore Demands Correction to Facebook Post on Malaysia Travel
Singapore Demands Correction to Facebook Post on Malaysia Travel
(Bloomberg) -- Singapore’s government has issued a correction notice to a Facebook post by a page called ‘State News Singapore,’ which is often critical of the ruling party and its leaders, contesting its description of a recent call between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysia Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin over easing travel restrictions.
The post in question says Singapore’s Lee personally called his Malaysian counterpart requesting to open up daily commutes between the countries and that Malaysia refused. The government, in the correction directions, said this was “false”. Malaysia requested the call, and made the proposal for a daily cross-border commuting arrangement, Singapore’s government said.
The direction is the first known use of Singapore’s recently-enacted fake news law, known as POFMA, since the 2020 election was called. The election will be held July 10.
The government also issued a targeted correction direction to Facebook, as well as a correction direction to Alex Tan, a frequent government critic who shared the post and has been targeted under the law before.
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