Telegram has not responded to police's requests to remove accounts sharing sexually explicit content: Sun Xueling

Online messaging platform Telegram has not responded to the police's requests to remove access to accounts disseminating sexually explicit materials, said Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling on Wednesday (Nov 22). 

Sun, who is also the Minister of State for Social and Family Development, was responding to a Parliamentary question about the government's current measures to tackle the rising number of Telegram channels selling nonconsensual and illegally obtained sexually explicit materials. 

The question was posed by Ang Mo Kio MP Nadia Ahmad Samdin, in light of the emergence of Telegram chat groups like SG Nasi Lemak and SGWikiLeaks. 

Noting that the police takes a very "serious view of such offences", Sun said that the authorities have recently introduced the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA) this year to deal with the dissemination of harmful content. 

Passed in July this year, the OCHA will allow the Government to tell individuals, entities, online and Internet service providers, and app stores to remove or block access to content it suspects is being used to commit crimes.

 

 

 

 

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Under the new law, five types of directions can be issued when there is reason to believe an offence has been committed online.

"When the OCHA is operationalised progressively from the first quarter of 2024, the police can issue a Disabling Direction to online platforms such as Telegram to prevent such materials on the platform from being accessed by Singapore users," said Sun. 

She added that non-compliance by the online platform with these Directions will be considered an offence. 

In addition, the competent authority in charge of administering the OCHA can implement measures to restrict access to the online service provided by the platform, or part of the online service, to prevent the criminal activity and content from being accessed by persons in Singapore.

Besides the government's efforts to hold these platforms liable, Sun also emphasised that online platforms too have the responsibility to "proactively curb the spread of harmful online content" and ensure that their services are safe for users. 

She added: “However, there has recently been some progress in our engagement with Telegram. We will continue to work with them, and other online platforms, to better protect Singapore users from harmful content.”

Code of Practice for Online Safety

In July this year, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) issued the Code of Practice for Online Safety, which requires designated social media services with significant reach to implement processes to minimise users' exposure to harmful content. 

The six designated platforms are Facebook, Hardware Zone, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. 

Singapore users can also report harmful content to the designated platforms for appropriate actions to be taken. 

The IMDA will periodically review the need to designate other social media services with significant reach and impact as necessary, including Telegram, said Sun. 

claudiatan@asiaone.com