Singapore and Facebook clash over ‘false and malicious’ blog post linking banks to Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal
- The States Times Review was founded and is run by a Singaporean political activist Alex Tan, who is based in Australia
- Singaporean regulator asked Facebook to take down a post of the article but ‘Facebook has indicated that they will not accede to the request’
Facebook has rejected a Singapore government request to remove a post of an online article that the government said was “false and malicious”, prompting its Law Ministry to say the case illustrated the need to introduce legislation to stop fake news.
Singapore’s central bank said on Friday it had filed a police report against an online article by an Australia-based independent blogger about Singapore banks and Malaysia’s scandal-linked 1MDB state fund.
Web access in Singapore to the website of the States Times Review (STR) has been blocked by internet service providers as directed by Singapore’s telecom and media regulator IMDA, which said it had determined the website carried prohibited content.
“IMDA has assessed that the article undermined public confidence in the integrity of the Singapore Government and is objectionable on grounds of public interest,” Infocommm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said in a statement.
STR articles on its Facebook page remained available.
The IMDA asked Facebook to take down a post of the article but “Facebook has indicated that they will not accede to IMDA’s request”, it said in a separate statement on Saturday. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.