Singapore orders social media firms to block 95 accounts tied to exiled Chinese businessman

By Xinghui Kok

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore has ordered five social media platforms to block users in the city-state from accessing 95 accounts mostly linked to exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui, the government said on Friday.

The direction was issued to X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Tiktok under the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act on accounts that published more than 120 posts between April 17 and May 10 on Singapore's leadership transition.

The posts, published in a "coordinated manner", alleged Singapore was "in the pocket of a foreign actor, and that the foreign actor was behind the scenes in the selection of Singapore's fourth generation leader", the Home Affairs Ministry said.

This is the first time that the foreign interference law that was passed in October 2021 has been used to block access to social media posts.

Singapore had on May 15 sworn in Lawrence Wong as its fourth prime minister.

Guo, who was linked to 92 of the 95 accounts, is an exiled Chinese businessman and an outspoken opponent of Beijing's communist government. He was on Tuesday convicted in the U.S. on charges of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from online followers.

He is a former real estate developer who left China in 2014 during an anti-corruption crackdown. Guo had paid former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon $1 million as part of a consulting contract designed to lend legitimacy to his anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) movement.

Guo and Bannon launched a right-wing movement called the New Federal State of China in 2020 with a stated aim of overthrowing China's CCP as the Chinese government.

Singapore's home affairs ministry said Guo and his affiliated organisations - the New Federal State of China and the Himalaya Supervisory Organisation - have posted a variety of other Singapore-related narratives.

"The network's coordinated actions and precedent of using Singapore to push its agenda have demonstrated its willingness and capability to spread false narratives that are detrimental to Singapore's interests," the ministry said.

It said there are grounds to believe that Guo's network would use the 95 accounts to mount hostile information campaigns targeted directly at Singapore that can "undermine sovereignty and social cohesion".

Singapore had in February used the foreign interference law to designate a naturalised citizen as a "politically significant person" for pushing a foreign country's interest in Singapore.

Earlier this month, it designated labour union, National Trades Union Congress, as a "politically significant person". Politically significant persons must declare political donations of S$10,000 ($7,440.48) or more.

($1 = 1.3440 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; Editing by Arun Koyyur)