National Times Singapore FB page designated as Declared Online Location under POFMA; Barred from receiving financial benefit

The National Times Singapore (NTS) Facebook page has been designated as a Declared Online Location (DOL) under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) and will be barred from receiving any financial benefit.
The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) in a statement on Thursday (28 May) said that the page – which is run by Alex Tan – will be required to carry a notice stating that it has been declared DOL. This is to warn visitors about its history of communicating falsehoods.
The declaration will take effect on Friday (29 May).
“The declaration will also make it an offence for Tan to derive benefit from operating the NTS Facebook page, and will prohibit the provision of financial support to it for the purposes of supporting, helping or promoting the communication of falsehoods,” the Ministry added.
DOLs refer to online locations that have carried three or more different falsehoods that are the subject of active directions issued by the POFMA Office.
According to the MCI, the NTS Facebook page has “communicated numerous false statements of fact in a post published on 15 May”, and three of the statements were the subject of a POFMA direction.
Mr Tan has been issued POFMA correction directions in relation to falsehoods conveyed on six separate occasions on his previous Facebook pages, the States Times Review and the Singapore States Times.
The Ministry revealed that the majority of these falsehoods were related to the COVID-19 situation, including falsehoods suggesting that Singapore had run out of face masks.
Factually, the Government-owned fact-checking website, stated the following, among other things, as “false and misleading statements” published by the NTS:

• “Every criticism has been outlawed by the Singapore government through its new POFMA legislation, where the politicians in power get to decide what is truth.”
• The Minister for Law had issued a POFMA direction to ban a video.

Mr Tan, who claimed to be an Australian citizen staying in Australia, alleged that Singapore’s judiciary was biased.
“Mr Tan makes serious and baseless allegations about Singapore’s judiciary being biased. These have been brought to the attention of the Attorney-General’s Chambers for assessment on whether the allegations are in contempt of court,” the MCI stated in Factually site.

The Ministry also said that Mr Tan claimed that the Minister of Law faces criminal charges in Malaysia, which is “untrue”.
“So far, neither these pages nor Tan have complied with any of the requirements of the POFMA Directions and Declarations that they have been served with,” it added.