News

The crux of the recent charges levied against TikTok by the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce is the lack of control by the US government. Control is deemed necessary because social media platforms are not merely neutral avenues for free speech but are also seen as a space for informational warfare. Does Singapore also need to be concerned about its information space, because that is where ideologies, some of which may be harmful to our society, are shared and amplified? Information space is not the same as cyberspace. It is where parties can manipulate the truth to control mindsets. Those in this space include not just social media platforms but also news media, which tend to report from Western sources. However, hearing largely from only one viewpoint is no longer tenable in a world order that is fast becoming multi-polar. It is high time for Singaporeans to think about how we should guard against the algorithms of Facebook and YouTube when they can suppress some views but promote other, non-Singaporean, values to us. The same goes for TikTok. Maintaining the status quo is not an option. At best it will make us unwitting pawns in this age of great power rivalry; at worst, Singapore risks division when foreigners attack us along ideological fault lines.