Facebook censors news because Singapore told it to

Fake news is a threat to democracy. But it's no more so than right-wing regimes that define what fake news is as an excuse to censor media outlets that accurately report news.

Singapore has one of the most vile dictatorships on the globe. Recently, it passed a law titled the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation law. Its stated intent was to combat fake news, but everyone knew that was a mound of shit. The law empowers the government to force online platforms to remove news items. It imposes prison sentences of up to 5 years on those who don't comply. It also imposes a heavy fine and 10 years in prison for those found guilty of using false accounts to spread what is deemed fake news.

If fake news was the real target, the first parties busted under this law would be right-wing fake news mills that hoard sockpuppet accounts and post reams of bogus stories as often as they dare. Instead, Singapore went after a news site that reported on the bottomless right-wing corruption that plagues the Singaporean government.

Under the new law, Singapore told Facebook to label posts from that site with a "correction notice." Naturally, Facebook went right ahead and did it. Of course it did.

Singapore had accused the censored site of making "scurrilous accusations" about the city-state's election process.

Singapore has also ordered an opposition politician to correct a Facebook post that questions the independence of state investment funds.

That's because Singapore is a police state. It's a police state that has been supported by Republican regimes in the U.S.

America needs to pass a law to punish sites like Facebook that comply with censorious diktats of authoritarian governments like that of Singapore.

(Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50613341)