In this day and age, people rely extensively on social media to obtain their information.
What happens when these sources are incorrect? People may start believing incorrection information and it’s a terrible case of the blind leading the blind.
This could be why the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) has been used so frequently in recent times.
One TikToker has found himself in hot water regarding factually inaccurate statements in his short-form videos.
He racked up a total of three POFMA correction notices in a short span of a week.
Here is what is up with his third POFMA incident.
TikToker Issued POFMA Correction Notice Over Statements About HDB
HDB is a hot topic this week. After all, our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced some dramatic changes to the Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat system at this year’s National Day Rally.
The mature and non-mature estate labels will be phased out in favour of classifying HDB flats under the Standard, Prime and Plus categories.
People are naturally abuzz about it and one TikToker who talked about HDB flats on his TikTok account was POFMA-ed.
Going by the moniker of “dr.ishhaq.jay”, the user said several incorrect things, including that the HDB prices and sells BTO flats to make a profit.
This is vehemently denied by the government, where the Ministry of National Development (MND) issued a statement that this is not true.
In fact, the HDB “prices new flats with the objective of keeping public housing affordable to help Singaporeans own their homes”.
Consideration such as the “prices of comparable resale flats nearby” are used before they apply a “significant market discount to the assessed market values” to keep BTO flats “affordable for flat buyers”.
There was also an official clarification that HDB does not in fact make a profit from selling BTO flats.
The TikToker’s statement that the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) “charges a premium when selling land used for HDB flats, and that SLA makes profits from land sold to HDB” is also not true.
Now, given this fiasco, the TikToker has to make a new TikTok to clarify the facts and link users to the government’s official clarifications on this matter.
TikTok Pte. Ltd. Is also required to “communicate a correction notice to all end-users in Singapore that had accessed the TikTok posts”.
We sure hope that this TikToker does not land himself in more hot water with the government for false statements.
He had already two run-ins with POFMA this week.
One was related to voting, about the government being able to trace votes to voters.
The other was related to CPF, which you can read more about here.