Correction Direction and Targeted Correction Directions Under The Protection From Online Falsehoods And Manipulation Act 2019 To Address Falsehoods On Public Housing Policies
Correcting inaccurate policy claims may help buyers base public-housing decisions on verified information and reduce confusion affecting market sentiment or application behaviour.
The Government ordered correction notices for TikTok posts dated 17 and 18 August 2023 that contained false statements about public-housing policies.
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The TikTok posts published by the user “dr.ishhaq.jay” on 17 and 18 Aug 2023 contain false and misleading statements regarding public housing policies.
2 The Minister for National Development has instructed the POFMA Office to issue a Correction Direction to the user “dr.ishhaq.jay” and a Targeted Correction Direction to TikTok Pte. Ltd., in relation to these posts.
3 The user “dr.ishhaq.jay” is required to create a new TikTok post containing a correction notice, which states that the earlier posts contain false statements of fact and provides a link to the Government’s clarification. TikTok Pte. Ltd. will also be required to communicate a correction notice to all end-users in Singapore that had accessed the TikTok posts.
4 For the facts of the case, please refer to the Factually article “Corrections regarding falsehoods on public housing policies.” at https://www.gov.sg/article/factually240823-a).
5 We are also aware of a TikTok post by the user “dr.ishhaq.jay” on 23 August 2023, claiming that the user has received POFMA directions simply for “asking questions”. This is incorrect. POFMA does not deal with opinions or questions, but aims to protect Singaporeans from false statements of fact. Expressing opinions and asking questions should be done responsibly. In the case of TikTok user “dr.ishhaq.jay”, he has gone beyond asking questions to make a number of serious falsehoods affecting public interest on multiple occasions.
Issued by:
Ministry of National Development
Ministry of Law
Date:
24 August 2023