Singapore has ordered Facebook parent Meta to block Singaporeans’ access to posts made by foreigners, ahead of an election under rules restricting their social media posts.
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The Infocomm Media Development Authority issued the orders after some posts by foreigners were deemed as “intended to promote or prejudice the electoral success or standing of a political party or candidate”, the Elections Department and Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement on Friday.
The city state’s election on May 3, the first under the social media rules put in place by the government in 2023, is almost certain to be dominated by the People’s Action Party, which has won the most seats in every election since independence in 1965.
The rules bar foreigners from publishing online election advertising, which it defines as online materials that could help or hurt any political parties or candidates.
Friday’s statement identified the foreigners as Iskandar Abdul Samad, national treasurer of the Islamist party Parti Islam Se-Malaysia; Mohamed Sukri Omar, the party’s youth chief in the Malaysian state of Selangor; and Facebook user “Zai Nal”, identified as Zulfikar bin Mohamad Shariff, an Australian who renounced his Singapore citizenship in 2020.
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Iskandar had expressed support for the opposition Workers’ Party’s Faisal Manap in a social media post.