The owner of The Online Citizen Asia (TOCA) is now “banned” from making money through the platform.
Yes, you read that right. TOCA has found itself in the government’s crosshairs again. And this seems to be the final nail in the coffin for the next two years, at the very least.
Here’s why.
MCI Declares TOC a DOL; TOCA “Banned” from Making Money Through TOCA’s Online Platforms
On Friday (21 July), the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) declared TOCA, which currently operates from Taiwan, a Declared Online Location (DOL) under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA).
Simi DOL?
If you’ve never heard of DOLs before, fret not. Goody Feed’s here to make sure you don’t sound like a suaku when your kakis bring up this topic.
The DOL is akin to the final boss of the POFMA laws. Once an online platform has been POFMA-ed for three or more different false statements of fact in six months, it will get DOL-ed.
Becoming a DOL doesn’t mean you must stop running your online platform. Your platform may remain active but under two conditions.
First, your online platform is banned from making money. This is to ensure platforms don’t profit from spreading falsehoods.
Second, you must also put a notice on your platform stating that you’re a DOL. Think of it like those primary school punishments where you must stand in the parade square holding an “I was late for school” signboard.
Jin jialat.
And in the POFMA arena, it’s no secret that TOCA is on the leaderboard. It has been POFMA-ed multiple times over the past six months, including for statements alleging unfair trials and police bullying.
It’s no surprise that TOCA is now declared a DOL.
While TOCA has yet to respond directly to the DOL declaration, they have published an article highlighting its “achievement” as “the first to be listed on the DOL list of the POFMA office’s website”.
There’s a first time for everything, I guess.
The DOL will come into effect for TOCA’s website, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages on Saturday (22 July). The DOL status will last for two years.
Wah… Just nice until the next GE. TOCA still got chance leh.
TOCA is far from the first “banned” from making money due to the DOL.
You might recall that earlier in 2020, the States Times Review (STR) Facebook page was similarly declared a DOL.
This came after a series of POFMA directions were issued against the STR Facebook page from November 2019 to February 2020. To make things worse, STR did not comply with any POFMA directions.
Playing punk.
Other pages owned by STR’s owner, Alex Tan, were also declared as DOLs. This includes the Singapore States Times Facebook page, National Times Singapore Facebook page and Alex Tan’s Facebook page.
That’s not all. Alex Tan was probably looking for a spot on the POFMA office staff’s hit list.
After refusing to comply with POFMA directions, he also refused to comply with the DOL requirements. This prompted the POFMA office to issue Access Disabling Orders to Facebook to restrict Singaporean’s access to the above pages owned by Tan.
TLDR, the POFMA office ordered Facebook to kick Tan off Facebook.
And Facebook did—they didn’t have a choice. Should an internet intermediary fail to comply with an Access Disabling Order, it can be fined up to $20K for each day of failure to comply, up to a cap of $500K.
We’ll have to wait and see if TOCA will comply with the DOL declaration.
If not, they may apply to the MCI to vary or cancel the DOL declaration. Should the application be refused, TOCA may appeal to the High Court.
If you’re still getting your news from TOCA, we only have one thing to tell you: please be cautious and fact-check the information you’re reading on TOCA.
Alternatively, just read Goody Feed lah.