SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Lim Chong Kin, Drew & Napier LLC
In brief, such providers are required to implement reasonable verification measures to prevent the creation and usage of inauthentic accounts or bots for scams and malicious cyber activities. Furthermore, such providers are to proactively detect and take necessary action(s) against sus - pected scams and malicious cyber activities. They must also submit an annual report on the implementation of the measures and efforts to meet the objectives. Currently, designated online services include social media services such as Facebook and Instagram, alongside online messaging applica - tions such as Telegram, WeChat and WhatsApp. 10.2 Regulatory and Compliance Issues Under the new Part 10A of the BA, the IMDA is empowered to issue directions to deal with egregious content that can be accessed by Sin - gapore users on OCS. For instance, the IMDA may issue directions to an OCS provider to dis - able access by Singapore users to the egregious content on the service or to ensure that a speci - fied account cannot continue to communicate to Singapore users. Moreover, the amended BA empowers the IMDA to issue directions to inter - net access service providers to block access by Singapore users to the non-compliant OCS if an OCS provider fails to comply with the IMDA’s direction. Online Criminal Harms Act Under Part 2 of the OCHA, providers of an online service can be subject to a disabling direction or account restriction direction if users misuse or share illegal content on the online service.
A disabling direction or account restriction direc - tion in respect of online activity may be issued if it is: • reasonably suspected that a specified offence has been committed and that any online activity is in furtherance of the commission of the offence; or • suspected or there is reason to believe that any online activity is preparatory to, or in furtherance of, the commission of a scam or malicious cyber activity offence. A disabling direction under Section 9 of the OCHA will require the online service provider to take all reasonable steps to disable access by Singapore persons to: • any relevant material stored, posted, pro - vided or transmitted on or through the online service; • any identical copies of the relevant material stored, posted, provided or transmitted on or through the online service; and • any relevant location on the online service. Meanwhile, an account restriction direction under Section 11 of the OCHA will require the online service provider to take all reasonable steps to disallow or restrict interaction between any relevant account on the online service and Singapore persons, by the time specified in the direction. Reasonable steps may include the termination, suspension or restriction of one or more functionalities of the online service in rela - tion to the relevant account. Given that the regulations in relation to social media services are relatively nascent, there have not been any published enforcement decisions with respect to social media as of 1 January 2025.
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