International Grand Committee on Disinformation and ‘Fake News’ in London

27 Nov 2018

Three Singapore Members of Parliament participated in the hearing of the International Grand Committee on Disinformation and ‘Fake News’, in London on 27 November 2018. The Committee comprises members of the national Parliaments of nine countries, and is co-led by the UK House of Commons Select Committee for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Canadian Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.

Singapore’s representatives were Mr Edwin Tong Chun Fai (Senior Minister of State for Law and Health, and Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC); Ms Sun Xueling (Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of National Development, and Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC); and Mr Pritam Singh (Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC). They were members of the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods which recently presented its report to the Parliament of Singapore.

Parliamentarians of the International Grand Committee on Disinformation and ‘Fake News’ also signed a declaration on the Principles of the Law Governing the Internet.

Watch videos of the International Grand Committee Hearing:

• Session with Facebook representative Mr Richard Allan, Vice President of Policy Solutions, please click here


• Extract of Mr Edwin Tong’s exchange with Mr Allan on Facebook contents which attack people on lines of race, religion or ethnicity, please click here


• Extract of Ms Sun’s exchange with Mr Allan on how Facebook monitors the setting up and shutting down of fake accounts and their networks, please click here


• Extract of Mr Pritam Singh questioning Mr Allan on the effectiveness of Facebook’s stepped-up vigilance and monitoring of anonymous users in the run up to elections and during elections, please click here


• Session with Ms Elizabeth Denham, Information Commission; Mr Steve Wood, Deputy Information Commissioner; and Mr Ashkan Soltani, tech expert, please click here


• Extract of Mr Edwin Tong’s exchange with Ms Denham and Mr Wood on a coordinated policy towards disinformation, please click here


• Extract of Ms Sun’s exchange with Ms Denham and Mr Wood on a framework to bind tech companies and regulators to address disinformation, please click here


• Extract of Mr Pritam’s exchange with Ms Denham and Mr Wood on how to inoculate the citizenry against disinformation and fake news, please click here