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TOC Asia & Terry Xu Issued POFMA Correction Notice For Recent Posts Implying Police Bullying

2023-05-08 , 5:07 pm

The Online Citizen Asia (TOC Asia) just reached another “milestone” since returning online in September 2022.

They got POFMA-ed again.

POFMA Correction Notice Issued to TOC Asia & Terry Xu (Again…)

On Sunday (7 May), the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) Office issued a correction notice to TOC Asia and its Chief Editor, Terry Xu.

You read that right. Less than a year after coming back online, TOC Asia has already been POFMA-ed for a second time.

This time, the POFMA Office is breathing down TOC Asia and Xu’s necks for recent posts related to a 2021 incident of alleged police bullying.

Specifically, a few posts were made by TOC Asia and Xu corresponding to the same issue: Xu’s Facebook post made on 30 April, an article TOC Asia published on 2 May, alongside social media posts from TOC Asia referencing the 2 May article.

3 Parties POFMA-ed: The Alleged “Police Bullying” Incident in 2021

Not sure which “police bullying” incident we’re talking about? Fret not. Goody Feed is here to jog your memory.

In May 2021, police found themselves in the crosshairs of Singaporean netizens after word spread online that four officers had harassed an auntie at Yishun Avenue.

It was alleged that although this auntie took off her mask due to breathlessness, the police officers clustered around her and taunted her even after she had put on her mask.

The original Instagram story posted by Instagram user @nichology also accused the police officers of abusing their authority. Sites like TOC Asia and Singapore Uncensored subsequently ran the same story on the alleged police bullying incident as well.

Back in 2021, correction directions were already issued by the POFMA Office to the relevant parties, which included TOC Asia.

TOC Asia appealed against this correction direction.

We don’t think this is what the government had in mind when they urged Singaporeans to be resilient…

Regardless, the High Court dismissed the appeal to set the correction direction aside in 2022. The court had found that the police bullying allegations were a “false statement of fact” which were “wholly unfounded”.

Police Refute Allegations of “Police Bullying”; Claim They Were Helping Elderly Woman Find Her Way Home

Back in 2021, the police had already refuted these allegations.

The truth is this: the police were not “bullying” the woman or taunting her. The 85-year-old woman, who has dementia, appeared lost, so the four officers attended to her to help her find her way home.

Several passers-by also helped to aid the elderly woman, giving the auntie extra masks and helping the police contact the auntie’s domestic helper to bring her home.

This is why you shouldn’t believe everything you read online. If someone tells you your dress looks good, it probably doesn’t (we’re kidding).

You can read more about the alleged “police bullying” incident here.

TOC Asia: Once Bitten, Not Always Twice Shy

One thing about TOC Asia and Terry Xu is that you should always expect the unexpected when it comes to them.

Even after being POFMA-ed once in 2021, they’re not shying away from writing about the alleged police bullying incident—which brings us to the current POFMA correction notice issued to TOC Asia and Xu.

This time, Xu claimed that the 85-year-old woman was not lost, and the police knew this. Instead, he argues that the main reason the police approached the 85-year-old was because she was not wearing a mask.

He also alleged that the police had lied to the auntie’s next-of-kin that she was lost, resulting in a police report filed by the next-of-kin.

Whether or not the 85-year-old did, in fact, lose her way, one thing’s for sure—the police and the POFMA Office are probably losing their minds right now.

Police Refute Allegations (Again) and Reiterate Account of the 2021 Incident

On Sunday (7 May), the police addressed the recent posts by TOC Asia and Xu rehashing the alleged 2021 “police bullying” incident.

As expected, the police refuted the allegations and called them “baseless”.

Although the police did ask the auntie to wear her mask, they didn’t approach her for the sole reason of asking her to wear her mask.

Instead, the police clarified that they approached the 85-year-old in the first place because a member of the public had requested the four officers’ assistance to help an elderly woman who appeared to be lost.

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And indeed, the 85-year-old was lost—she could not recall her address. The police also genuinely believed so, per the High Court’s findings in 2022 when TOC Asia appealed against the earlier POFMA correction direction in 2021.

“The fact that they had asked her to put on a mask does not detract from the fact that they were trying to get her home safely,” the police added.

Further, the police report filed by the 85-year-old’s next-of-kin was not against the police but against TOC Asia.

Oh, how the tables have turned. A movie could be made from this plot twist alone—Jack Neo should get in on this instead of “I Not Stupid 3“.

The next-of-kin had filed the report against TOC Asia for interviewing the 85-year-old without the family’s permission and for the site’s false accounts of the 2021 incident.

Contempt of Court, Criminal Defamation, POFMA Correction Orders…

Unless you live under a rock, you would know that this isn’t TOC Asia or Terry Xu’s first brush with the authorities.

If you think it’s the second, guess again. It isn’t even the third.

In 2019, Xu was sued by PM Lee for defamation. This involved allegations published on the socio-political news site that PM Lee had misled his late father regarding the status of their family home. This did not end well for Xu—PM Lee was awarded $210K in damages.

This one, really, sue until your pants drop.

In 2021, Xu and a TOC writer, Daniel De Costa, were convicted of criminal defamation for publishing an article alleging “corruption at the highest echelons” in Singapore’s Cabinet. This, once again, did not end well for Xu. In April 2022, he went to jail to jiak kali png for three weeks.

Nevertheless, Xu and De Costa managed to have their jail terms corresponding to their criminal defamation charges replaced with fines last week. You can read more about this here.

The laundry list doesn’t end here.

In 2022, a month after TOC Asia’s relocation to Taiwan, they were slapped with a POFMA correction order after alleging that the Singapore government profits from land sales.

Last month, Xu made the news again for contempt of court after publishing an article on TOC Asia impugning “the integrity, impartiality and propriety” of Singapore’s Courts.

You get the drill by now; this also did not end well for Xu. He was fined $18,000.

Perhaps this is what some girls think when they say they want a “bad boy”.