Social media sites will be required to remove egregious content within hours under new Bill: Josephine Teo
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Regulators will act swiftly to ensure social media platforms respond in a robust manner to deal with content that has been flagged to be harmful, says Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo.
Laws to tackle online harms will kick in in 2023 after Parliament passed an Online Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill on Wednesday, with unanimous support from MPs.
The Bill seeks to amend the Broadcasting Act to make social media platforms liable if they fail to protect local users from online harms, placing the Republic among front runners regulating a space that has so far been self-supervised.
For one thing, the Bill will empower the Infocomm Media Development Authority to issue orders to social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, to take down egregious content.
That includes posts advocating suicide, self-harm, child sexual exploitation and terrorism, as well as materials that may incite racial or religious tensions or pose a risk to public health.
Failure to comply may attract a fine of up to $1 million, or a direction to have their social media services blocked in Singapore.
The code is expected to be rolled out as early as 2023, after a final round of consultation with social media firms.
In this exclusive interview with multimedia correspondent Cheow Sue-Ann, Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo shares more about the Government’s plans to make social media safer for Singaporeans.
