GE2020: Mindef debunks State News Singapore's claim that PAP's Shawn Huang's accuser is facing disciplinary actions

In a Facebook post yesterday (June 28), People's Action Party's GE2020 candidate Shawn Huang addressed a woman's claim of how he turned away food offered to him and threw it on the table.

Later that same day, State News Singapore alleged in a Facebook post that Huang "took vengeance against his critic", who was "forced by her Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) superiors to take down her post".

The post further claimed that the woman, who was an SAF officer, is facing disciplinary actions for her criticisms against Huang and was "internally-POFMAed".

The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) clarified today the "assertions in the article are patently false" as the woman in question had left the SAF more than a year ago.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/mindefsg/posts/10156936742341059[/embed]

The woman, who calls herself Lin Leo on Facebook, has also clarified her reasons for taking down her initial post and apologised for her harsh language.

Mindef added that the owner of State News Singapore, Alex Tan, has a history of propagating falsehoods.

The Ministry of Communications and Information previously designated several of Tan's Facebook pages as Declared Online Locations (DOLs) for having carried three or more different online falsehoods within a period of six months.

Members of the public were advised to "exercise caution and do additional fact-checking when accessing such DOLs for information".

Just today (June 29), the alternate authority for the Minister for Foreign Affairs had also instructed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) Office to issue correction directions to Tan's Facebook pages. 

The Pofma Office declared that the State News Singapore Facebook page made false statements of fact about cross-border travel arrangements between Singapore and Malaysia in a post published on Saturday (June 27).

trining@asiaone.com