SINGAPORE: The Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) – an activist group that campaigns against the death penalty – was handed a third Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) order on Saturday (Oct 5).
The correction direction relates to an article published on TJC’s website and posts made on its Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X pages on Wednesday.
A correction direction was also issued to activist Kokila Annamalai over posts she made on Facebook and X on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a media release on Saturday.
TikTok, meanwhile, has been issued with a targeted correction direction over the aforementioned TJC post on the platform.
The article and social media posts contained false statements of facts concerning the legal processes for death row prisoners and the prosecution of drug trafficking charges related to a death row prisoner.
The false statements said that the government schedules and stays executions arbitrarily and without regard for due legal process, and that the state does not bear the legal burden of proving a drug trafficking charge against an accused person.
“The government takes a serious view of the deliberate communication of falsehoods,” MHA said.
“The Minister for Home Affairs has instructed the POFMA Office to issue correction directions to TJC and Kokila, and for a targeted correction direction to be issued to TikTok Pte Ltd.”
TJC will be required to carry a correction notice on its website and alongside its Facebook, Instagram and X posts, and create a new TikTok post containing the correction notice.
Annamalai will similarly be required to carry the correction notice on her Facebook and X posts. A known civil activist, she was charged in June over a pro-Palestinian procession to the Istana.
TikTok will also be required to communicate a correction notice to all end-users in Singapore who had accessed TJC’s TikTok post, MHA said.
As of 2pm on Sunday, checks by CNA showed that TJC had complied with the POFMA order.
CNA also understands from TikTok that the post violates the platform's community guidelines, and the company has complied with the POFMA order by sending inbox notifications to users who have seen the content.
In response to the false statements, MHA said that an execution will only be scheduled when a prisoner has exhausted all rights of appeal and the clemency process.
The state always bears the legal burden of proving a drug trafficking charge against an accused person, MHA added.
“The prosecution always bears the legal burden of proving its case against an accused person beyond a reasonable doubt. This also applies to offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act, including drug trafficking,” the ministry said.
An article on the government fact-checking website Factually explains further why the assertions made by TJC and Annamalai are false.
MHA noted that TJC had previously been handed two POFMA correction orders, on Aug 8 and Aug 11, for having made similar false statements regarding death row prisoners.
“TJC has again deliberately communicated falsehoods despite the facts having been communicated to them earlier,” MHA said.
“It is also noteworthy that TJC had chosen to highlight the drug trafficker’s side of the story, while ignoring the fact that he had committed the crime for personal financial gain and disregarded the harms he would cause to his victims – the drug abusers and their loved onesnuibet,” the ministry added.