Singapore has instructed Meta, Facebook’s parent firm, to cut off local access to posts from three foreign nationals who are alleged to have sought to influence the country’s coming election along racial and religious lines.
The Infocomm Media Development Authority made the blocking orders after concluding that the posts were intended to influence electoral results in favor of specific political parties or candidates, a joint statement by the Elections Department and Ministry of Home Affairs said on Friday.
The May 3 poll will be Singapore’s first with new social media guidelines implemented in 2023, which disallow foreigners from putting up online material that may influence political campaigns. The People’s Action Party (PAP), under the leadership of Singapore since 1965, continues to be the dominant political party.
The three persons listed were Iskandar Abdul Samad, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia’s national treasurer; Mohamed Sukri Omar, a Selangor youth leader; and Zulfikar bin Mohamad Shariff, an Australian who had renounced Singaporean citizenship in 2020. Iskandar had made public his support for an opposition candidate, Faisal Manap of the Workers’ Party, while Zulfikar had criticized Malay-Muslim MPs for not representing Muslim interests. Sukri had reposted Zulkifar’s post.
Singaporean officials indicated that such articles could encourage race-and-religion-based voting. Sukri later replied on Facebook, refuting any motive to meddle, stating he did so out of concern that the Malay-Muslim community was marginalized. Zulfikar also dismissed the allegations, describing the government’s move as an act born out of fear, and indicated his plans to carry on his campaign via alternative means.
The Workers’ Party explained that it does not have control over foreign endorsements and reiterated its position of keeping religion out of politics. The PAP and Meta have not made public statements.
