FAKE NEWS!
Is it even possible to read those words without the booming voice of Donald Trump echoing in your head?
With the advent of the internet, it has never been easier to spread misinformation to people all over the world in a matter of seconds.
That’s why the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) was introduced; to “prevent the electronic communication of falsehoods”.
So, even if an anonymous person on Hardwarezone falsely claims that a Wuhan virus patient in Singapore died, the POFMA people will come for you and say FAKE NEWS in their best Trump impression.
POFMA, For the First Time, Issues Correction Notice to Hardwarezone’s EDMW
The office overseeing the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) has issued a general correction notice to SPH Magazines over a post on HardwareZone Forum.
Yes, in case you’re not aware, Hardwarezone is owned by SPH. The media giant had bought the website over for a whopping SGD$7.1 million in 2006.
Goodbye Goody Feed, I’m starting an EDMW clone now.
But anyways.
The correction notice was ordered by Health Minister Gan Kim Yong.
Now, many of you may know Hardwarezone as the forum where locals go to complain about absolutely everything.
Especially a sub-forum called Eat-Drink-Man-Woman. That place is a classic.
The problem was that, this time, they made a false claim. A yuge false claim.
As you can see, the poster is named Potato_salad, so you know that he is a reliable source of information.
He claims that one of the patients of the Wuhan coronavirus, a 66-year-old man, had died in Singapore on 26 Jan.
This is false, according to the POFMA office.
“A false statement was made in a HardwareZone forum post, claiming that a man has died from the Wuhan coronavirus infection in Singapore. HardwareZone is required to carry the Correction Notice to all end-users in Singapore who use HardwareZone.com,” said the POFMA Office.
The POFMA Office then referred to a Factually article which said there have been no deaths among the confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus infection as of 11pm on Jan 26.
According to CNA, SPH Magazines, which operates HardwareZone Forum, complied with the correction notice in a post on Monday which included a link to the Factually article.
So yes, while it’s a stretch, you can say that a mainstream media is POFMA-ed.
Either that, or the moderators have been on holiday for so long that they didn’t notice this fake news.
“Swift Action” needed
Citing the Hardwarezone case, the Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran said swift action needs to be taken to counter falsehoods as Singapore fights the Wuhan coronavirus.
He isn’t exaggerating here. The post was viewed by 4,600 unique visitors before it was eventually taken down. The Wuhan virus is tough enough to deal with it. What we don’t need is misinformation or falsehoods that will only cause the public to panic, a sentiment the minister echoed.
“Some who viewed the post would also have shared it with others and been misled by it”, he said.
“We must take swift action against such falsehoods. Otherwise, there is a grave risk that they will spread and cause panic among our citizens. And that is why we have POFMA and we will not hesitate to use the powers under the law to take action against any party that spreads such falsehoods.”
He added that if any other cases come to the Government’s attention, the same kind of evaluation and action would be taken.
Lest you’ve forgotten, the Government also wrote an article to debunk misinformation about the Wuhan virus.
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To ensure that you’d always have the latest and correct information about the Wuhan virus status here in Singapore, you might want to bookmark MOH’s website instead.
