2LT International News

SINGAPORE: Singapore has ordered Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to block Singaporeans from seeing posts made by three foreigners accused of trying to influence the country’s upcoming election.

The posts were said to focus on race and religion.

Two of the people whose posts were blocked denied the accusations.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority issued the orders after the posts were found to “promote or harm the success of a political party or candidate,” according to the Elections Department and Ministry of Home Affairs.

Singapore’s election on May 3 will be the first under new social media rules introduced by the government in 2023. These rules ban foreigners from posting election ads online, which include materials that could help or hurt political parties or candidates.

The three foreigners involved are Iskandar Abdul Samad, a leader of a Malaysian political party, Mohamed Sukri Omar, a youth leader of the same party, and Zulfikar bin Mohamad Shariff, an Australian who gave up his Singapore citizenship in 2020.

Iskandar had posted support for an opposition candidate, Faisal Manap, while Zulfikar criticized Malay-Muslim members of Singapore’s parliament. Sukri shared Zulfikar’s post.

The government said their posts tried to influence Singapore’s politics by pushing racial and religious issues.

Sukri responded, saying he never meant to interfere with Singapore’s election but was just concerned about the Malay Muslim community. Zulfikar claimed the ruling party was “scared” of his posts and that it showed “desperation.”

The opposition Workers’ Party said it had no control over foreign supporters. They added that Faisal Manap had spoken about keeping religion separate from politics.

The ruling People’s Action Party did not comment, and Meta, Iskandar, and the Malaysian party also did not respond to requests for comments.