Singapore Introduces New Law to Order Removal, Blocking of Harmful Online Content

May 8, 2023

On May 8, 2023, the Online Criminal Harms Bill[1] (Bill) was introduced for its first reading in Singapore’s Parliament.

The Bill empowers a competent public authority[2] to issue any of five distinct types of directions:

A Stop Communication Direction, which requires a person or entity to remove, stop posting or transmitting, and/or disable access to online criminal content so it is not accessible by any persons in Singapore.

A Disabling Direction, which requires an online service provider (such as a social media platform or instant messaging provider) to disable access to specified content, such as material that had been posted or transmitted on or through an online service. This extends to disabling access to any identical copies of the relevant material, as well as to any location on the online service from where the content could be retrieved.

An Access Blocking Direction, which requires an internet service provider to block access by persons in Singapore to any material or location such as a website.

An Account Restriction Direction, which requires an online service provider to stop or restrict interaction between an account on its online service from communicating and interacting with any persons in Singapore.

An App Removal Direction, which requires an app store to stop distributing an app to, and to stop enabling the download of this app by, any persons in Singapore.

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