Alex Tan's Facebook pages designated DOL again after multiple falsehoods

Alex Tan's personal Facebook page as well as that of Singapore States Times, which is run by him, will become Declared Online Locations (DOL) under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma), the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) announced today (May 6).

A DOL can be issued when a website or webpage carries three or more different online falsehoods within six months and has been served Pofma notices.

Singapore States Times' and Tan's Facebook pages have repeatedly communicated falsehoods since November.

A DOL will not be allowed to profit from spreading falsehoods in Singapore. According to MCI, Tan, who contested in the 2011 General Election under the Reform Party banner, derives monetary benefits from the pages.

Under the declaration, the pages are required to warn visitors that they have a history of communicating falsehoods.

It will come into effect on May 7.

This is the second time that Facebook pages operated by Tan have been declared DOLs. In February, the States Times Review page became the first online entity to be declared as such under Pofma. It ignored the direction, which led to Facebook disabling access to it for Singapore users.

jayjaylin@asiaone.com