Moderator and Panellists
- Ming Tan, Senior Fellow & Founding Executive Director, Tech For Good Institute
- Francis Ng, Commissioner, Online Safety Commission
- Sun Sun Lim, Vice President of Partnerships & Engagement, and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Communication and Technology, Singapore Management University
- Bertha Chan, APAC Senior Program Manager (Trust & Safety), Google
- Serene Poh, Head of Legal (SEA and GC), Adobe
As misinformation spreads faster and online scams grow more sophisticated, trust in the digital ecosystem is increasingly under strain. To combat these online harms, Singapore has enacted landmark legislation, the Online Safety Relief and Accountability Act (OSRAA), and established an Online Safety Commission that highlights Singapore’s evolving approach to online safety, one characterised as efficient and accessible to victims. While the act and commission are new, the concerns addressed are longstanding. Preceding legislation such as the Protection from Harassment Act (POHA), the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), and the Foreign Interference Countermeasures Act (FICA) served to address the emergence of bad actors, falsehoods, and disinformation campaigns well before OSRAA. The continued expansion of legislation signals Singapore’s adaptability in confronting online harms as they evolve.
In view of this increasingly precarious digital landscape, the panel examined current efforts to safeguard the digital sphere and emphasised the necessity of a whole-of-society approach, involving internet users, digital platforms, and government, in keeping the internet safe. The session also explored Singapore’s next priorities in cultivating online safety.
Ultimately, the panellists remain cognisant that trust undergirds digital participation, with the law being one of the ways in which trust can be buttressed and restored through the promise of legal enforcement. At the same time, legal professionals must collaborate closely with businesses from the outset, as technology evolves faster than regulation.
Key takeaways
1. The Online Safety Commission plays a vital role in safeguarding society against negative externalities caused by digital harm, enabled by its unique emphasis on victim-centric remediation.
Prior to OSRAA, Singapore’s legislation addressing online harms mostly stopped at the institutional level, leaving victims vulnerable to harmful content in the digital sphere. With the act now in effect, the government is endowed with the ability to protect individuals from a specific set of harms arising from interpersonal interactions. Given that online harms encompass many types, online harassment, online stalking, doxxing, intimate image abuse, and image-based child abuse are prioritised in the first phase. Through a direct reporting channel with the commissioner, unlike previous legislation that lacked such enforcement capabilities, online service providers are compelled to remove harmful posts immediately. This shifts the burden of taking down posts from the distressed user to the platform, providing swift redress.
Thus, the enactment of OSRAA signals the government’s clear recognition that unaddressed individual harms can compound into societal ones. However, while victims have expressed gratitude since its inception, the legislation will likely face judicious scrutiny, as expected of any new law. Nonetheless, in a digitalised world where users can be held hostage by online harms, the law remains essential in delivering accountability, redress, and transparency.
2. Moving online safety upstream needs to be a priority for platforms and governments to ensure that users are protected at every stage of their digital journey.
From the perspective of a platform, trust serves as the bedrock for all innovation. Much like boarding a plane, users will not participate in the digital sphere if trust is eroded. However, threatening this foundation are top-of-mind concerns like scams and fraud, alongside the advent of AI outpacing legislation. Thus, platforms like Google operationalised content removal as early as 2002, complying with community guidelines and local laws. The daily filtering of emails into the spam inbox in Gmail also underscores the importance of shifting to an upstream approach as it mitigates the risk of users encountering suspicious emails. This safety-by-design practice, which embeds user safety in product design, ensures that phishing attempts are blocked before reaching the main inbox.
Similarly, Adobe Content Credentials embed metadata into AI-generated or AI-edited images, functioning like a nutrition label that highlights AI usage to inform users. By establishing proper trust infrastructures, such as verifying AI output, platforms give users the assurance of responsible technology use. Simultaneously, the government’s role has evolved. Moving away from a whack-a-mole approach, it has shifted toward proactive prevention and enforcement, tangibly realised through the commission.
3. Singapore’s unique social, technological, and regulatory landscape enables us to innovate solutions to keep the younger generation safe from online harms.
While the rest of the world rushes to restrict adolescent social media use amid growing uncertainty, Singapore has refused to be a price-taker, opting instead to learn from others. Australia’s ban on social media accounts has shown limited impact, highlighting the counterproductive effects of heavy restriction over cultivating resilience. For instance, teen migration to alternative, unverified platforms has caused distress and fostered a form of defiance, as youth bypass legal restrictions without repercussion. Closer to home, Malaysia’s recent social media ban for those under 16 has raised similar anxieties regarding its potential ineffectiveness among policymakers and parents alike.
Resultantly, Singapore is exploring age assurance measures rather than an outright ban, leveraging existing digital government infrastructure such as Singpass. This national identity system offers a robust mechanism for age verification, complemented by a comprehensive education system that establishes tiered autonomy levels aligned with educational and age milestones. Adopting this alternative approach to online safety leaves room for policy sandboxing and innovation tailored to Singapore’s unique landscape. Ultimately, the government aims to craft legislation that is uniquely Singaporean, encouraging platforms to innovate boldly while remaining accountable to their users.
