For something that will change the political landscape of Singapore and how social media's influence will be diminished especially during events such as the General Election, the Fake News Law, or POFMA to give it it's proper name, has been passed in Parliament afteronluy two days of "rigurous" debate.
The mainstream media has termed the debate as a marathon, as it lasted two full days, and until late on Wednesday evening. But as expected, the law has been passed with all 72 PAP MPs saying yes, 9 WP MPs saying no, and 3 NMPs abstaining from voting. WP Chief Pritam Singh has said the law gave Ministers too much broad powers, which was strongly rebutted by the PAP MPs, all singing from the same hymn, in that Courts could not make a decision on fake news within mere hours. What was implied was that the Ministers can make decision within hours or even minutes if the news is deemed fake.
The debate ended up being mostly PAP MPs rebutting pointers voiced out by WP, in what was a clear signal that the Bill will be pased in no time. Seeing that the GE is soon upon us, there is a feeling on the ground that Fake News Law will rear its ugly head during this critical period of Singapore.
