So you think you’ve only 500 friends in Facebook and you should be safe from POFMA.
After all, no one reads what you write; very often, you feel like you’re writing to a ghost town, and the Internet has become an outlet for you to rant about things that might be untrue.
Well, think again, because a Facebook profile that looks like a troll profile has just been POFMA-ed, and it has only 1,127 followers.
Though that particular post has garnered 270 Shares lah.
A FB User With No Face & 1.1K Followers Has Been ‘POFMA-ed’ for Fake News About Resilience Budget
By now, we should know the repercussions of fake news, and understand why the authorities are working on overdrive to clamp them down.
In recent days, they’ve been on WhatsApp, which is a tad difficult to trace the original source. And it’s still damaging: one of these fake news even purported that Singapore is moving to DORSON Red.
Left unattended, that fake news could mean that some of us would have no toilet paper at home.
This time around, though, it’s a piece of fake news by a Facebook user called 超静.
A check on his or her or its profile shows that it’s a typical anti-establishment user who’s not happy at every decision the Government makes. Just like most trolls, the person behind the profile completely anonymous.
It’s a rather inactive account until this month when it suddenly went on overdrive to criticize the Government.
But opinions are okay until 29 March 2020 morning, when it posted an angry post, coupled with images of The Straits Times with a can of drink and a bottle of mineral water, and taken with a Huawei phone, on Facebook that garnered 270 Shares and 9 comments.
In it, it claimed that 1/3 of the help package announced by DPM Heng is given to SIA, and that the past reserves that the authorities have drawn out for the help package are used for “temasek businesses”.
That is, of course, false. After all, SIA is suffering so much that they’re selling bonds—for the layman, it means they’re borrowing money from you and me (when you buy a bond, you kind of “lend” money to the company”).
Today, the Finance Minister instructed a correction direction to be issued 超静 on the post, whereby he or she or it has to carry a correction notice at the top of the Facebook post.
In other words, POFMA-ed lah.
Gov.sg has also clarified, and we’ve Singlish-ed it for you:
- No lah it’s untrue that 1/3 of the money is given to SIA lah; they source money is they source themselves one and not related to the Government
- No lah drawing of reserves for the help package isn’t for “temasek businesses” lah, they are for
- Enhancement of Jobs Support Scheme (S$13.8b)
- Enhancement of financing schemes (S$1.7b)
- Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (S$1.2b)
- Aviation Support Package (S$0.4b)
So basically, 超静 has anyhowly said where the money goes to.
As of time of writing, he or she or it hasn’t made the correction.
Lesson here? Don’t anyhowly say things online, even if you’ve only 500 friends.
