Watch for misinformation, foreign interference in GE2025, say experts as they stress community’s role

SINGAPORE – What kind of disinformation and foreign meddling might surface when Singapore heads to the polls in the 2025 General Election?

The spread of fake news and external influence is almost inevitable during elections, and the

Government has strengthened its legal framework to counter these threats

.

Yet, no amount of regulation can fully shield Singapore from the misinformation that often accompanies elections, experts told The Straits Times. Protecting the electoral process, they said, requires not just strong laws but also a vigilant and informed public.

Singapore is an attractive testing ground for foreign actors refining their interference tactics, said Singapore Management University (SMU) law professor Eugene Tan.

“We are seen as a most suitable target for malicious foreign actors to have a go, to try out their capabilities, and to improve their measures to our counter-measures,” he said.

The country’s high internet penetration and social media use further increase its vulnerability, said Dr Natalie Pang, head of the communications and new media department at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Nearly 99 per cent of Singapore households have internet access, while 97 per cent of residents own smartphones, according to a November 2023 Infocomm Media Development Authority study.

“Due to anonymity afforded by the internet as well as the presence of encrypted platforms, it can make it much harder to detect disinformation campaigns and limit its dissemination,” Dr Pang said.

These threats have already affected elections elsewhere. Dr Pang pointed to QAnon, a conspiracy theory movement that emerged on 4chan, an anonymous online forum, in 2017. Its false narratives spread across platforms and influenced voters in the 2020 US presidential election.

In 2024, Romania annulled its presidential election after detecting a foreign-backed disinformation campaign, underscoring the need for stronger digital literacy.

Bolstering Singapore’s defences

On Feb 5, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling highlighted the Government’s awareness of how social media algorithms can manipulate the information users see.

She said measures under the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (Fica) allow the authorities to act against foreign entities, including social media companies, that deliberately manipulate algorithms to influence domestic politics.

The law, which came into effect in December 2021, empowers the Government to disclose information from platforms to investigate hostile information campaigns and their foreign origins. It also enables the authorities to issue directives against content or accounts involved in such campaigns.

Ms Sun noted that during elections, falsehoods considered to be against the public interest

could be countered using the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma)

. This law allows the Government to issue correction notices, remove content or block access to sites spreading misinformation.

With intensified social media use and the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI), the 2025 General Election could see harmful content spreading rapidly, warned Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser, adjunct principal research fellow at IPS Social Lab.

While small-scale disinformation can be managed, a sudden surge would pose a major challenge, he said.

“The Government would need to work overtime to correct the untruth... and just as important, to be effective in convincing voters not to fall for the disinformation.”

However, he cautioned that if voters are not discerning from the outset, efforts to counter falsehoods mid-election may be “too little, too late”.

Community involvement

Singapore has long enforced laws to keep the internet safe, said Dr Carol Soon, an associate professor of media and digital policy at NUS.

In July 2024, the Government used Fica to block nearly 100 social media accounts linked to exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who officials believed could spark hostile information campaigns.

“This was to stem the potential slow-drip effect of attempts to sow doubts on the Government’s integrity and Singapore’s independence,” said Dr Soon, who is also vice-chairwoman of the Media Literacy Council.

However, experts stress that laws like Pofma and Fica are most effective when the community remains alert.

Independent political observer Felix Tan urges netizens to be cautious when information becomes overly extreme or personal.

“That is when one can probably disregard such sites, because it is likely that the information presented is questionable and dubious,” he said.

Among the biggest emerging threats to election integrity, according to Dr Pang, are AI-powered deepfakes and manipulated content spreading across multiple platforms.

This has already started to happen here. Politicians in Singapore have been victims of deepfakes, which are digitally manipulated, AI-generated realistic videos.

Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong on June 27, 2024,

warned people to be wary of videos of him

supposedly commenting on matters, including international relations and foreign leaders.

Responding to questions about the internet on Aug 3 that year at a dialogue with young people, SM Lee emphasised the community’s role in tackling fake news, asking people to “pause, critically assess, and resist impulsive sharing” to prevent misinformation from spreading rapidly.

Aware of these risks, the Government has taken further steps.

In October 2024, Parliament passed a law

banning deepfakes and digitally altered content of candidates during the election period.

SMU’s Associate Professor Tan said that ultimately, the best defence is a resilient population that will not fall victim so easily to these threats, as no law or policy can make a community completely immune to foreign interference and fake news.

“We need to look inwards too, as the most serious threat could very well be internal ones. In short, governments and legislation, no matter how determined and thorough, do not defeat election threats; it is the people who do,” he said.