Singapore 'highly susceptible' to threat of fake news: Shanmugam

Singapore

SINGAPORE is "highly susceptible" to the threat of fake news, warned Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam on Wednesday, in moving a motion to appoint a select committee to study the issue.

The 10-MP committee will examine the causes and consequences of deliberate online falsehoods, said Mr Shanmugam. It may also call for public feedback, and is to consult "as widely as possible", he added.

The select committee will be chaired by Deputy Speaker Charles Chong. It will comprise another seven MPs from the People's Action Party, one opposition MP and one Nominated MP.

The government last set up a select committee to examine policy issues 22 years ago, in 1996. Such committees can also be set up to consider proposed legislation.

After considering counter-measures needed to prevent and combat such falsehoods, the committee will present a report with recommendations to Parliament.

With a select committee, dialogues can be held with specified groups, Mr Shanmugam added.

This process will allow for wider dialogue, and for Singaporeans to hear directly from experts, as well as voice their own concerns or suggestions, he said. As countries around the world become the subjects of "organised, deliberate disinformation campaigns", he noted that those who spread online falsehoods may do so deliberately.

Mr Shanmugam also said that state and non-state actors do so to interfere with democratic processes, undermine confidence in institutions, and destabilise societies. The government has been studying this problem for a while, he added.

With 91 per cent of Singaporean households having Internet access, and with the multiracial and multi-religious country being a financial hub for the region, it is a "highly susceptible" target, the minister said.

Noting Singapore's position as a key player in Asean, he added: "If we can be influenced, swayed - foreign interests can be advanced through us."

Giving an example of how fault lines could be exploited here, Mr Shanmugam said false rumours surfaced last June on social media that cat and dog meat were mixed into the marinade of satay in a Geylang bazaar.

If left unchecked, deliberate online falsehoods could undermine Singaporeans' trust in institutions and the country's social cohesion, he said.

Also speaking in support of the motion was Communications and Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim, who said that new technologies now make it easier to create false information and damage societies.

He gave examples of the latest software and research that can allow perpetrators to impersonate anyone, including heads of state.

One such technology allows videos of people talking to be manipulated in a way that their expressions depict, in real-time, what the perpetrators intend to convey. This was demonstrated by professors at Stanford University and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in 2016.

Another, developed by software maker Adobe called "Photoshop for audio", also allows users to edit voice in a manner that makes it "virtually indistinguishable" from the target's real voice and does not sound computer-generated at all, he said, adding that Singapore was "especially vulnerable" to this.

He cited a poll conducted by the government last May, which found that one in four Singaporeans frequently came across online news that was not fully accurate; two in three were unable to recognise some or all of the falsehoods; and one in four of them admitted to sharing news that they later found was fake.

"We are a small and multi-racial society that can be easily overwhelmed by a larger adversary taking advantage of our societal fault lines . . . People can easily access the Internet and social media on their smartphones anytime and anywhere, and hence are more susceptible to the spread of online falsehoods," said Dr Yaacob. He noted that Singapore has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world, at almost 150 per cent.

Dr Yaacob gave three examples of how falsehoods were spread here and caused public anger.

In 2015, socio-political website The Real Singapore published a fabricated article on a Filipino family purportedly complaining about the noise from a Thaipusum procession involving Indian Singaporeans.

Going further back, The Singapore Herald had launched a misinformation campaign in the early 1970s while, in 1971, The Eastern Sun had received HK$8 million from a communist intelligence agency to publish articles of their choice.

He added that the government was not against the use of technology but "the people and actors abusing" it to spread online falsehoods.