Government hearings in Singapore put Facebook under intense scrutiny and have paved the way for a new fake news law in the country. That has human rights organizations and activists concerned.
SINGAPORE — The timing could not have been worse for Facebook.
Just days after the company was embroiled in a scandal over the use of user data by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook vice president of public policy Simon Milner was sworn in to testify before the Singapore government's Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods.
Rather than start with Facebook's approach to combating false content and information operations, K. Shanmugam, the minister for law and home affairs and an experienced litigator, zeroed in on testimony given about Cambridge Analytica by a Facebook representative before a UK parliamentary committee months earlier. Shanmugam argued that statements made about Cambridge Analytica were now inaccurate given new information.
Facebook's vice president of public policy in Asia-Pacific, Simon Milner, at a meeting with Indonesian representatives in Jakarta, April 17, 2018.
The hearings, held in March, came at a time when Facebook, Twitter, and Google were facing an unprecedented challenge and being summoned by governments around the world to testify about fake news, privacy, and election interference on their platforms. In many cases, it seemed like regulation was just around the corner, but the companies frequently argued against new legislation, citing their stepped-up enforcement of community guidelines and increased investment in tools and resources to combat false information.
The report also contains many recommendations that have nothing to do with legislation, including calling for increased fact-checking and investigative journalism in the country, and building the digital literacy and critical thinking skills of the population.
Notably, speed was emphasized as a requirement of any new legislation. The committee said it must "achieve the objective of breaking virality [of false content] by being effective in a matter of hours." This means platforms will need to act quickly, potentially leaving less time for pushback or negotiation with the government body making a takedown or throttling request.
"The ultimate goal of these measures is not censorship, but the exact opposite — to ensure our freedom of speech can be meaningfully exercised, in a properly functioning 'marketplace of ideas' that is not drowned out by fake actors or false content," the committee wrote.
If the law is passed, as expected, next year and includes the recommended elements of rapid takedown/throttling, criminal penalties for perpetrators, and provisions against monetizing falsehoods, it would be the most far-reaching fake news law passed by a government so far.
Other laws, such as the recent German hate-speech legislation, known as NetzDG, includes the requirement that platforms must remove "unlawful" material within 24 hours of being notified.
Based on the committee's recommendations, Singapore's law could include the above elements and more. Just as notable, Singapore's approach will present a unique challenge for Facebook, Google, and Twitter. All three made Singapore their Asian headquarters and have significant operations in the country.
The platforms now must prepare to enforce an as-yet-undrafted new law on behalf of a government frequently criticized by humans rights groups for its repression of freedom of expression and its authoritarian approach to speech. If they don't, it could put their Asian operations at risk.
After the report was released, Google, Facebook, and Twitter issued statements — but did not directly address the issue of legislation.
Though the Singapore government was widely expected to propose new legislation, the process that led to it was unprecedented for the country. The ruling People's Action Party, the only party to govern Singapore since it declared independence 53 years ago, had rarely in the past created a bipartisan committee, published a position paper, and held public hearings prior to passing legislation. The consultative approach signaled the PAP recognized the importance of the issue, both internally and on the world stage.
"There was an appreciation when we first started engaging that there was a fair amount of divide and divergent views as to what extent this was a problem, and who were the stakeholders," Puthucheary said.
Everything was livestreamed, and there was a sense of drama from the beginning. The Ministry of Law issued a press release to attack Human Rights Watch for not appearing before the committee to defend its recent report, "'Kill the Chicken to Scare the Monkeys' — Suppression of Free Expression and Assembly in Singapore," which was released a month before the hearings were announced. The report analyzed Singapore's existing legal framework and criticized the government for its repressive approach to free speech.
The committee requested HRW testify about the report, but HRW declined.
HRW's conclusions align with the argument made by independent journalists and activists who testified about their objection to a new fake news law. They said the country already has several laws used to shut down websites and restrain speech. As in the HRW report, these laws and their application are criticized by human rights and press freedom organizations for being overly broad and indiscriminately applied.
At the same time, Singapore is also respected in the region and beyond as a strategic, stable, secure magnet for foreign investment where the rule of law is applied. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chose it as the location for their historic summit this summer. Facebook, Google, and Twitter all want to remain there, and on good terms.
This all means Singapore's new law will be watched closely. If it establishes a new model for the speedy removal of content from Facebook, Google, and Twitter, it could be emulated by others.
Puthucheary, the senior minister of state, said the government was aware of the international focus on the issue, but its priority is Singapore rather than any larger impact.
Kirsten Han (left) and Ping Tjin Thum.
In early September, Kirsten Han began seeing messages on Facebook and Twitter calling her a "treacherous sow" and saying she should be executed for treason.
Han is a Singaporean journalist and activist, and a frequent critic of the ruling party's approach to press freedom and use of the death penalty. She's used to online criticism, but this was more extreme in tone and content. It also struck her as a case study in how the government itself can be a source of false allegations.
It began with a Facebook post from Han's business partner, Ping Tjin Thum. Thum is a Singaporean academic based at the University of Oxford who was admitted to Harvard at 16 and competed in the Olympics for Singapore. He and Han run a small, member-funded nonprofit media company called New Naratif that reports on Southeast Asia and advocates for democracy in the region.
Since Singapore declared independence from Malaysia, the specter of foreign interference has been seen as a threat to the security and stability of the wealthy city-state. It's therefore viewed as a serious issue by many citizens, especially PAP supporters. Seah's post didn't encourage or condone harassment, but the onslaught began.
Singapore's foreign affairs and law minister, K. Shanmugam.
Soon Shanmugam, the minister for law and home affairs who'd questioned Facebook's Milner, weighed in. "We should never go out and invite someone foreign, a foreign politician, to intervene in our domestic politics. I think that is an absolute no-no," he said, repeating Seah's allegation.
This was in some ways a continuation of what began during the hearings. Milner's testimony was only eclipsed in time and intensity by the sessions held with Han and Thum, both of whom argued that a new law was not necessary due to existing laws that can be used to order the removal of online content and prosecute people who publish false information.
Thum and Han felt a new law was inevitable, regardless of what took place at the hearings. Prior to the creation of the committee, Shanmugam said a new law was a "no-brainer." But Thum felt it was important to participate.
The conflict continued well after Thum's session. The committee's final report said that in the end, it gave "no weight" to his submission and testimony. A key reason given was that the committee concluded that Thum lied about his credentials. This accusation centers on the title at Oxford that Thum used in his submission.
"We came to the conclusion that he lied and so we gave no weight to his representations," Puthucheary said.
"I completely disagree with the Report of the Select Committee's allegation that I 'clearly lied' and misrepresented my academic credentials. I will respond more fully in due course," Thum said in a response posted on Facebook. He declined to comment further, citing the advice of his lawyers.
Thum at the University of Oxford.
This level of attention and scrutiny applied to dissenters like Thum is one reason why he and Han worry a new law might be used to target government critics.
"Basically, I am concerned that they will leave the law broad to catch a variety of circumstances — but the broader the law the more open to abuse, and the greater the impact on freedom of expression," Han said.
Singapore was ranked 151 out of 180 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index. That makes it worse than Russia and the Philippines, two countries where press crackdowns and intimidation and harassment of journalists are commonplace.
Singapore's approach to freedom of expression can result in strange incidents. Recently, a group of Reuters employees in Singapore gathered outside their headquarters to take a photo in support of two colleagues currently imprisoned in Myanmar for reporting on genocide in that country. They held up signs with the hashtag #FreeWaLoneKyawSoeOo. This managed to attract the attention of local police.
Wham's contempt charge stems from a Facebook post in which he said "Malaysian judges are more independent than Singapore's in cases with political implications," and shared a link to an article about a constitutional challenge to Malaysia's fake news law. Wham added that it would be "interesting to see" how the challenge turned out.
John Tan Liang Joo, an opposition politician, posted on Facebook that the government's action against Wham's post "confirmed the truth of Mr Wham's assertion about the independence of the Singapore judiciary." That resulted in Tan being charged as well.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called for the charges against Wham and Tan to be dropped.
The questioning of Facebook at the hearing in March was also notable for who barely spoke. Alvin Tan, the company's public policy lead for Southeast Asia, remained silent next to Milner as he was put through the wringer by the minister.
Tan, more than anyone at the company, understands the views of the ruling PAP and how to interact with its leaders. A native Singaporean, he was the author of Facebook's submission to the committee, which argued against a new law.
"We do not believe that legislation is the best approach to addressing the issue. Singapore already has a variety of existing laws and regulations which address hate speech, defamation and the spreading of false news," he wrote.
But Tan is in a delicate position due to the fact that he's active within the PAP and was publicly named by the party as a potential candidate to run for a seat in the next election.
Last December, the Straits Times, one of Singapore's dominant mainstream newspapers, reported that Tan was on a list of 200 promising Singaporeans identified by the PAP as possible candidates in 2019. Tan's Facebook profile also features multiple photos of him at events with a current MP from the PAP named Lily Neo.
Puthucheary said Tan is not an MP as of now, and it's therefore premature to talk about him in that role. But he said parliament has rules in place to address any conflicts of interest.
As she watched Facebook, Google, and Twitter testify at the hearings, Gillian Koh was struck by the fact that the platforms fully participated in the process and acknowledged that they would obey any relevant local laws.
Koh, deputy director of the Institute of Policy Studies in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said a key driver for both the government and the platforms to get along is the desire to maintain Singapore's reputation for being a business-friendly environment.
Commuters using technology on MRT Singapore.
"Singapore is in the business of business. We want to make everything sweet for everyone," she said.
And the platforms do need to carry on business in Singapore. Google and Facebook have roughly 2,000 employees in the country combined (Facebook declined to provide specific numbers). But as much as the government works to make things easy for big companies to set up shop, it also requires them to play by its rules. And that's where the new law comes in. If Facebook, Google, and Twitter want to stay in Singapore, they will need to fall into line.
"We would still dare to, at the risk of being called out as 'illiberal,' we would dare to say that we need to take our own measures to deal with deliberate online falsehoods," Koh said.
"In a way, Asia watches what's going here. Google could move anywhere, but they know this is where the rest of Asia looks on," she said.
The idea that the rest of Asia might emulate Singapore's approach is a concern for Han. She was happy when the new prime minister of Malaysia fulfilled his election promise to move to repeal the fake news law passed by the previous government, even if the opposition is currently blocking it. Now she's concerned a new law in Singapore will put pressure on tech platforms to remove or throttle the spread of content that should remain untouched, and that this may inspire other governments to follow suit.
"Singapore already has this outsized reputation as being a place where everything works and there's rule of law and they do everything so well," she said.
After receiving the letter, the prime minister referred it to the Ministry of Home Affairs — which is overseen by Shanmugam. His press secretary issued a statement.
"The three individuals claim that they are patriots. It is not patriotic to invite any foreign leader to intervene in Singapore politics, especially the leader of a country who has declared his desire to increase the price of water to Singapore by more than 10 times, and with whom we seek to maintain close and friendly relations," it read in part.
Seah Kian Peng chaired the five-hour Select Committee session that featured Kirsten Han. This article incorrectly said Seah led the questioning, when in fact it was primarily done by MP Edwin Tong.