On 8 May 2023, the Online Criminal Harms Bill (“Bill“) was introduced for First Reading in Parliament. To better protect the Singapore public from various online harms, the Bill seeks to tackle online content which is criminal in nature or used to facilitate or abet crimes. The Bill also introduces levers that enable the authorities to deal more swiftly with online criminal activities and proactively disrupt scams and malicious cyber activities.
Specified Criminal Offences
The Bill, if passed, will enable the Government to take swifter action against criminal activities undertaken online by issuing directions to any online service through which criminal activities could be conducted (“Government Directions“). This will be applicable to the criminal offences specified in the First Schedule of the Bill, which includes criminal offences that affect national security, national harmony, and individual safety.
Government Directions may be issued when there is reasonable suspicion that an online activity is being undertaken to commit a crime. Depending on the facts of the case (i.e., the content and recipient), the following Government Directions may be issued:
(a) Stop Communication Direction. Requires the recipient of the Government Direction to stop communicating specified online content to the Singapore public.
(b) Disabling Direction. Requires the online service providers to disable the specified content on their service from the view of the Singapore public.
(c) Account Restriction Direction. Requires the online service providers to stop an account on their service from communicating in Singapore and/or interacting with the Singapore public.
(d) Access Blocking Direction. Requires the internet service providers to block access to an online location such as a web domain from the Singapore public.
(e) App Removal Direction. Requires app stores to remove an app from its Singapore storefront to stop further downloads of the app by the Singapore public.
For more information, click here to read the full Legal Update.
