Singapore’s government has ordered Facebook, Twitter, and the SPH Media-owned HardwareZone forum to notify users that information about a Singapore variant of the coronavirus circulating there were false.
Under the so-called fake news law, the Ministry of Health instructed the platforms to issue corrections to users who may have read false statements from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal that a new variant of the coronavirus had emerged in Singapore which threatened India with a third wave of infection – something that shook diplomatic relations between the two nations.
Twitter this morning published its “legally required” notification directing users to the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act website to find accurate government information. Similar notices went up on Facebook and the HardwareZone forum. The notice on Facebook disappears from the feed once a user has clicked it.
Singapore’s Ministry of Health refuted Kejriwal’s statement in the wee hours of Wednesday, saying that there was “no truth” to what he had written, noting that it was, in fact, a variant discovered in India that has been spreading in the city-state recently.
After which, India’s External Affairs Ministry publicly echoed the sentiment yesterday, saying that Kejriwal had no capacity to pronounce new COVID-19 variants, with its minister calling his comments “irresponsible.” The reaction came soon after Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Ministry weighed in on the matter.
“[The Ministry of Foreign Affairs] regrets the unfounded assertions made on Facebook and Twitter by Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal that a variant of COVID-19 in Singapore was particularly harmful to children and could cause a third wave of infections in India,” it said in a statement. “MFA is disappointed that a prominent political figure had failed to ascertain the facts before making such claims.”
The controversy erupted Wednesday soon after Indian media reports cited Kejriwal’s tweet urging his government to bar travel from Singapore.
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