The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore has asked Meta to block some online posts on Facebook, a joint statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Elections Department Singapore (ELD) said.
These posts were made by foreigners and are seen as trying to influence the upcoming General Election (GE2025) on May 3.
The posts were written by two Malaysian politicians from the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and a former Singaporean, Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff, who is now an Australian citizen. They talked about religion and politics and supported certain opposition candidates.
Singapore’s MHA and Elections Department said that these posts are examples of Online Election Advertising (OEA). It is illegal under Singapore’s law for foreigners to be involved in elections or post political messages during the election period.
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The authorities also said that these messages were targeted at Singaporeans and tried to encourage voting based on religion and race, which can harm social unity.
Zulfikar had previously been detained in 2016 under Singapore’s Internal Security Act for supporting terrorist ideas and promoting violence. In his recent post, he criticised Malay-Muslim ex-MPs and said that the Muslim community should not vote for candidates who do not represent their views.
The government warned that mixing religion and politics is dangerous. “These posts have been targeted at Singaporeans. They interfere with our domestic politics, which are reserved for our citizens. They also urge Singaporeans to vote on racial and religious lines, and have led to more social media postings of a similar nature,” the joint statement read. “All this has the potential to fracture the multi-racial and multi-religious harmony that is the bedrock of our nation.”
“Our institutions serve all Singaporeans equally. Bringing religion into politics will undermine social cohesion and harmony, as we have seen in other countries with race- or religion-based politics,” it added.
