Health minister Gan Kim Yong has invoked the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulations Act (POFMA) against the Singapore States Times Facebook page.

This was after the page claimed that the number of new Covid-19 cases reported on Apr. 17 were halved.

Gan then instructed the POFMA office to issue a Correction Direction to the Singapore States Times Facebook page and a Targeted Correction Direction to Facebook.

This means that Singapore States Times must publish a correction notice, and provide access to the correct facts, although it does not need to remove its post.

The Targeted Correction Direction means that Facebook is required to inform all of its users in Singapore, who have accessed the falsehood, about the correction notice.

Not complying with order

In response to the correction order, the States Times Review editor Alex Tan responded with a message on the original Facebook post saying that he will not be complying with the order issued by the authorities.

The post said:

States Times Review will never comply with any censorship order from a foreign country like North Korea or Singapore. The editor of this site is an Australian and I am duty-bound to promote and protect democracy and freedom of speech. In times of crisis like today's, accurate reporting and the truth are now in scarcity due to propaganda fake news churned out by the Singapore's 151st-ranking state media. States Times Review is henceforth committed to keep publishing what Singaporeans need to know and not what the Singapore government wants to hear. If the Singapore government is indignant, it should obey due process by obtaining an Australian court order by lodging a complaint with an Australian court to get my compliance. Alex Tan STR Editor

It was subsequently announced on April 21 that Singapore's press freedom ranking in 2020 has fallen to 158.

Facebook, on the other hand, complied with the POFMA notice by overlaying information over the States Times Review Facebook post urging readers to visit the Singapore government website for information.

This measure was put up at the direction of the POFMA office, Facebook said.

What did the post in question say?

On Apr. 18, the Singapore States Times put up a Facebook post which alleged the following:

That an "insider" at MOH had told the States Times Review that the actual reported figures for Apr. 17 were 1,146 for new cases and 5,573 for the total number of cases,

That Gan had ordered the numbers to be halved and that this was done by reporting the figures in the afternoon at 4pm instead of in the evening at 11pm,

That the Singapore government had earlier covered up the number of uncontactable suspect cases, then the flight information and profiles of imported cases, and subsequently, the total number of cases by reporting only the number of discharged and daily increases.

That the States Times Review had called out MOH about the cover-up, and that the ministry had to comply.

Facts published on government website

In response, the government's Factually page dismissed the allegations as false and stated:

623 cases were reported on Apr. 17, with the figure of 1,146 cases being false,

Neither Gan nor the government had issued any instruction to halve or under-report the cases,

There is no cover-up on the part of MOH or the government and the ministry has always used 12pm as the cut-off time since the onset of the virus,

MOH's daily press releases publishes information on all Covid-19 cases -- confirmed, imported, linked, and unlinked -- along with daily reports on the situation, which are publicly accessible, and

MOH does not act and has not acted in compliance with any posts made by the States Times Review.

The page also clarified that MOH has begun releasing the gross number of new cases that have been preliminarily confirmed in the afternoon of each day, while contact tracing continues.

States Times Review alters name and vanity URL again

In any case, it also appears that the Singapore States Times is essentially the States Times Review, albeit under another name and vanity URL -- facebook.com/TemasekReviewSingapore.

In addition, the Singapore States Times' post also contains a link to an article on the States Times Review website, which is blocked in Singapore.

Previously in February, States Times Review had announced that it was shutting down to meet the government’s compliance requirements.

It then announced that The Real Singapore is taking over its Facebook page and website, and it would be handed to another person named Melanie Tan.

The STR Facebook page vanity URL was then changed to facebook.com/THEREALSINGAPORE.

At that time, Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran stated that "STR did not comply" to the government's requirements.

He also noted that STR's change of the vanity URL, was not a requirement under the law.

Top image from Unsplash and Singapore States Times Facebook