SINGAPORE — Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat has instructed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) office to issue a correction direction to a Facebook user for a post containing false statements about Singapore's Resilience Budget.

In a media release on Wednesday (April 1), the Pofma office said the Facebook user '超静' ('tifinnytara') will be required to carry the correction notice in full at the top of her post dated March 29.

The Pofma office addressed the falsehoods in the user's post in an article on Factually, the Government's fact checking website.

In the user's Facebook post, she claimed that almost one third of the support provided under the S$48.4 billion Resilience Budget will be provided to Singapore Airlines (SIA).

The Pofma office said this is false, as SIA's S$15 billion capital raising exercise is "distinct and separate" from the Resilience Budget and is not funded by the Government.

The Pofma office further clarified that none of the S$20 billion set aside as loan capital in the Resilience Budget "to support good companies with strong capabilities and to catalyse private sector loan capital" will be used by the Government to subscribe to SIA's fund raising exercise.

The user also claimed that S$17 billion from Singapore's past reserves will be used mainly for Temasek Holdings.

This is also false, said the Pofma office. It clarified that in order to support the Resilience Budget, the Government has proposed drawing up to S$17 billion from the nation's past reserves for "broad-based economy-wide and sector-wide schemes". These include:

• Enhancement of the Jobs Support Scheme (S$13.8 billion)

• Enhancement of financing schemes (S$1.7 billion) 

• Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (S$1.2 billion) and

• Aviation Support Package (S$0.4 billion).

"None of the above schemes are ring-fenced to be for Temasek Holdings or Temasek-linked companies," the Pofma office said.

A correction direction from the Pofma office requires its recipient to publish a correction notice, providing access to the correct facts. It does not require the recipient to take down his post or edit his content, and does not impose criminal sanctions.

The user had not added a correction notice to her Facebook post as of 11am on Wednesday. 

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