A correction direction was issued yesterday by the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) Office to the Peoples Voice (PV) Facebook page over a video containing a false statement about government spending on foreign students.
The Pofma Office also issued another correction direction to the YouTube channel of PV chief Lim Tean, where the video was also posted.
Mr Lim and PV are the first candidate and first party contesting this general election, respectively, to receive a Pofma correction direction.
The directions were issued on the instruction of the alternate authority for the Minister for Education.
The Pofma Office said the video contained a falsehood regarding government expenditure on foreign students.
In the video, which was posted on Wednesday, Mr Lim said: "We spend a quarter of a billion dollars providing free education for foreigners every year."
However, the Government said that this is "false and misleading".
"While MOE (Ministry of Education) spends about $238 million on foreign students a year, as stated in a parliamentary reply on 5 August 2019, the significant majority of these students are still required to pay fees higher than those of local students and/or fulfil a bond obligation after graduation," the Government said on its fact-checking website Factually.
When asked about the correction direction yesterday night, Mr Lim said: "I feel that this is another intimidation tactic... to try to intimidate the opposition, especially during this important period of elections."
A correction notice on the false statement has been posted in the description of the video on both PV's Facebook page and Mr Lim's YouTube channel.
PV has been campaigning extensively using its Facebook page, and did so again yesterday when it introduced its candidates through videos posted on the page.
Some of the party's new faces are business owner Nor Azlan Sulaiman, 48, who is in PV's Jalan Besar team, educator Sivakumaran Chellappa, 57, who is contesting in Mountbatten SMC, as well as lecturer Mohamed Nassir Ismail, 63, and blogger Jireh Lim Kay Cheow, 61, who are both part of PV's Pasir Ris-Punggol team.
