POFMA directions

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This page tracks directions issued under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019. For the courts' review of individual directions, see POFMA appeals. For the Act itself, see Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019.

This page replaces an earlier flat table with a Cargo-backed record: each direction is stored individually via {{POFMA-direction-cargo}} (see Template:POFMA-direction-cargo for the schema), and the table below is generated by querying that stored data rather than maintained by hand. Data entry for the full historical record is in progress — see the note at the end of this page for what remains outstanding.

Directions on record

Date issued Type Ministry Target Platform Subject Topics Incident
2019-11-25 Correction Direction mof Brad Bowyer Facebook Claim about the Singapore Government's involvement in investment decisions by Temasek and GIC Sovereign Wealth Funds
2019-11-28 Correction Direction mha States Times Review Facebook Allegation of an arrest or charge arising from a post about NUS Students United Legal enforcement
2019-11-29 Targeted Correction Direction mha Facebook Facebook Correction notice required on a States Times Review Facebook post
2019-12-14 Correction Direction mom Singapore Democratic Party Website Claim about local versus foreign PMET retrenchment trends Labour sdp-pmet-retrenchment-2019
2019-12-14 Correction Direction mom Singapore Democratic Party Facebook Claim about local versus foreign PMET retrenchment trends Labour sdp-pmet-retrenchment-2019
2019-12-14 Correction Direction mom Singapore Democratic Party Facebook Claim about local versus foreign PMET retrenchment trends, including a graphical illustration of PMET employment Labour sdp-pmet-retrenchment-2019
2020-01-22 Correction Direction mha Kirsten Han Facebook Allegations about the method used in judicial executions at Changi Prison Legal enforcement changi-prison-execution-allegations-2020
2020-01-22 Correction Direction mha Lawyers for Liberty Website Allegations about the method used in judicial executions at Changi Prison Legal enforcement changi-prison-execution-allegations-2020
2020-01-22 Correction Direction mha The Online Citizen Website Allegations about the method used in judicial executions at Changi Prison Legal enforcement changi-prison-execution-allegations-2020
2020-01-22 Correction Direction mha Yahoo Singapore Facebook Allegations about the method used in judicial executions at Changi Prison Legal enforcement changi-prison-execution-allegations-2020
2020-01-23 Access Blocking Order mci Internet Service Providers Disable access for end-users in Singapore to the Lawyers for Liberty website Legal enforcement changi-prison-execution-allegations-2020
2020-01-27 General Correction Direction moh SPH Magazines Website Allegation of a death from COVID-19 infection in Singapore, requiring a correction notice to all HardwareZone end-users in Singapore COVID-19
2020-02-15 Declared Online Location mci States Times Review Declaration following repeated communication of false statements of fact Legal enforcement
2020-02-17 Disabling Order mci Facebook Facebook Order following the States Times Review Declared Online Location Legal enforcement
2020-07-04 Correction Direction mnd Singapore Democratic Party Claim, during the 2020 general election period, that Singapore's population would rise to nearly 10 million by 2030 Population, Elections sdp-population-density-2020
2023-05-07 Correction Direction mha Terry Xu Facebook Claims about a 2021 police encounter with an elderly woman, including that police officers misrepresented the incident to her family Legal enforcement
2023-07-16 Correction Direction mlaw Jom Website Article on the Ridout Road ministerial-bungalow controversy, including a claim that the Government caused Instagram to geo-block a post Legal enforcement, Elections ridout-road-jom-2023
2024-07-31 Conditional Warning dr.ishhaq.jay Issued by the POFMA Office directly rather than a named Ministry; see the schema-limits note on the template page for how non-ministry issuing bodies are handled

Data entry

The individual stored records generating the table above follow. Grouped by year for editor convenience only — Cargo's storage is not affected by this grouping.

2019

These three directions were the subject of Singapore Democratic Party v Attorney-General [2020] SGHC 25, upheld in full, and partially overturned on appeal in TOC (CA) [2021] SGCA 96 (the graphical-illustration direction was set aside).

2020

These five directions concerned the same underlying allegations and were the subject of The Online Citizen Pte Ltd v Attorney-General [2020] SGHC 36, upheld and affirmed on appeal in TOC (CA) [2021] SGCA 96.
Issued during the election period by the Alternate Authority for the Minister for National Development. The subject of Singapore Democratic Party v Attorney-General [2022] SGHC 100, upheld, with permission to appeal further refused in [2022] SGCA 56.

2023

Upheld in Xu Yuan Chen @ Terry Xu v Attorney-General [2023] SGHC 200.
Upheld in The Inquiry Pte Ltd v Attorney-General and another matter [2023] SGHC 247, including a ruling on the effect of post-issuance addenda.

2024

Outstanding work

This page currently holds a representative sample only — enough to demonstrate every `direction_type` value on record, the `incident_id` linkage across simultaneous directions, and the `alternate_authority` flag for election-period directions — cross-referenced to POFMA appeals wherever a direction was subsequently challenged in court. The official POFMA Office count, as at 1 July 2026, is 92 cases comprising 146 Correction Directions, 39 Targeted Correction Directions, 5 General Correction Directions, 5 Access Blocking Orders, 3 Access Disabling Orders, and 27 Declared Online Locations;[1] that is the target the historical backfill from spreadsheet to individual `{{POFMA-direction-cargo}}` calls has not yet reached. See Template:POFMA-direction-cargo for the schema and for known schema limits (the non-direction "Media Statement" row, and ministry_id gaps for non-ministry issuing bodies like the People's Association and the POFMA Office itself).

References

Data drawn from a publicly maintained spreadsheet tracking POFMA directions; individual press-release PDFs cited in `source_pdf` where the filename is known.

  1. ↑ "POFMA Action Taken Up To 1 Jul 2026", POFMA Office. https://www.pofmaoffice.gov.sg/stats/permalink/
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