Activist group barred from receiving financial benefit through its online platforms

The anti-death penalty group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) has been barred from receiving financial benefit from its online locations for two years, starting Dec 21.

This follows the issuance of five correction directions to the Singapore-based group between August and December for falsehoods on its website and social media pages, the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) said on Dec 20.

The latest directive stipulates that the group’s website and social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) will be designated Declared Online Locations (DOLs).

Under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma), operators of DOLs are not allowed to receive financial or any other material benefit from these operations.

MDDI said the DOL status does not mean that TJC’s online platforms need to stop operating. But they must each carry a notice to alert viewers that they have been declared as DOLs, that they had communicated multiple falsehoods, and that viewers should exercise caution when accessing them for information.

Currently, TJC solicits donations and sells merchandise via links on its website and social media accounts. The group says monies raised go towards its operations.

The group runs a separate fund that it says supports its work with families of death row prisoners, such as paying for their international travel, accommodation in Singapore and funeral arrangements.

MDDI said the falsehoods communicated on TJC’s platforms pertained to the Singapore Government’s treatment of prisoners awaiting capital punishment and related issues.

It noted that each of TJC’s online platforms had met the requirements under Pofma to be declared as a DOL.

This includes the platforms having carried at least three different false statements of fact that are the subject of active Pofma correction directions, and that at least three of these false statements have been communicated in Singapore on each platform within the past six months.

Under the law, service providers such as digital advertising agencies and intermediaries must take reasonable steps to ensure that paid content they include, or cause to be included, on the group’s online platforms are not communicated in Singapore.

MDDI added that individuals and companies must not provide financial support to TJC’s online platforms if they know, or have reason to believe, that doing so will promote the communication of falsehoods in Singapore on these platforms.

The owner or operator of TJC’s online platforms, or any person with editorial control over them, may apply to the Minister for Digital Development and Information to suspend, vary or cancel the declaration. If the minister refuses the application, an appeal can be made to the High Court.

The latest correction direction TJC received was on Dec 14, in relation to the group’s claim that a death row prisoner was scheduled for execution before he had the opportunity to submit his clemency position to the President.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said then that the prisoner, Roslan Bakar, was executed on Nov 15 with no outstanding relevant legal proceedings that would affect the carrying out of his sentence.

An execution will only be scheduled when a death row prisoner has exhausted all rights of appeal and the clemency process in relation to his or her conviction and sentence, MHA added.

Source: Business Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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