Skip to main content
Best News Website or Mobile Service
WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards Worldwide 2022
Best News Website or Mobile Service
Digital Media Awards Worldwide 2022
Hamburger Menu
Advertisement
Advertisement

Commentary

Commentary: Singapore must stand together to combat the likes of Guo Wengui and his disinformation network

The modus operandi of Guo’s social media accounts illustrates how hostile information operations have become a growing threat to countries and governments around the world, says the Singapore Institute of International Affairs’ Nicholas Fang.

Commentary: Singapore must stand together to combat the likes of Guo Wengui and his disinformation network
File photo of Guo Wengui's social media page in August, 2017. Singapore has directed five social media platforms to block nearly 100 social media accounts linked to Guo under its foreign interference law. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
New: You can now listen to articles.

This audio is generated by an AI tool.

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s announcement on Friday (Jul 19) that it has invoked its foreign interference law to block 95 social media accounts linked to a self-exiled Chinese billionaire is significant for a number of reasons.

First, it marks the first time that the account restrictions directions under Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (FICA) is being deployed since the law was passed in October 2021.

Second, it casts a spotlight on the murky world of information operations and hostile influence campaigns that have become a growing threat to countries and governments around the world.

The man at the centre of the accounts is Guo Wengui, a critic of China’s Communist Party who fled to the United States in 2015. He was found guilty in the US earlier this week for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from his online followers.

Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the directions were issued after the network was identified and found to have disseminated disinformation across multiple social media and digital platforms.

This disinformation included allegations that Singapore is "in the pocket of a foreign actor", who was "behind the scenes in the selection of Singapore’s fourth-generation leader”, MHA said.

BROADER IMPLICATIONS

The latest deployment of FICA has raised eyebrows given the number of accounts in question, plus the provenance of the potential disinformation, leading to questions about the possible intention behind the network.

The decision to block the accounts was taken after it was assessed that they could be used to launch hostile information campaigns in Singapore, at a time when the country is undergoing a leadership transition and could face general elections, which must be called by November next year.

But for those who study and monitor information operations and interference campaigns around the world, it is clear that Guo’s network is not the largest to have been deployed.

Just earlier this month, the US Justice Department said it had disrupted a Russian operation that used fake social media accounts enhanced by artificial intelligence to covertly spread pro-Kremlin messages in the US and abroad.

Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui lived in a lavish New York penthouse after he fled China. (Photo: AFP/Timothy A Clary)

The news comes four months before the US presidential election, which security experts widely believe will be the target of both hacking and covert social media influence attempts by foreign adversaries. Some 1,000 social media accounts were allegedly associated with the operation, significantly more than those identified in the Guo network and a good wake-up call for Singaporeans as to the potential scale of such a threat.

At the same time, the modus operandi of Guo’s network is illustrative of how hostile information operations might work.

The suspect accounts operated on five social media platforms - X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, and published more than 120 posts between Apr 17 and May 10 this year that contained videos commenting on Singapore’s leadership transition.

Tapping on the algorithms favoured by social media platforms, which can be manipulated to encourage the spread of “popular” content as determined by the volume of similar or related posts, such efforts can create widespread impressions and shape perspectives on issues such as government policies and political office holders.

The ultimate aim could be to weaken trust in government agencies and seed broader disharmony in a society.

WHY SINGAPORE?

Singapore isn’t a significant target of hostile information or interference campaigns and there has not been much news of major attacks being directed at its shores. But this does not mean that it is forever safe or immune from such threats, as this latest incident has shown.

Some may question why Singapore would be a target, given that it is not a major power on the global stage. It is worth noting that Singapore holds a leadership position in a range of sectors, including as a global financial and logistics centre, and has long been actively involved in various regional and international fora and institutions.

Those who would seek to unseat Singapore from its positions, or who disagree with its policies and perspectives, may leverage cheap and effective information and interference operations to sow discord and create distractions for the government and society at large.

Ultimately, a divided nation with a distracted leadership will be less effective on the global stage and potentially less of a thorn in the side of its competitors or adversaries.

Such tactics are not new, as seen in the Russian interference in US elections in 2016 via social media and other platforms, the weaponisation of information operations in the two wars currently ongoing in Europe and the Middle East, and other examples in the recent elections in the UK and France.

It would be folly for Singapore to assume that this will never happen to it.

WHAT SINGAPORE CAN DO

The threat of hostile information campaigns is insidious as it does not manifest in physical or visible forms, and spreads rapidly on social media and other digital platforms that have become increasingly ubiquitous thanks to mobile and other forms of technology.

As such, the countermeasures to address such a low-cost and effective threat cannot rely on one single silver bullet alone.

The Singapore government has taken a firm position and made known its lack of tolerance for any efforts to spread disinformation online and elsewhere via laws such as FICA and the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act. Beyond the tangible impact, as seen in the latest restrictions of the Guo network of accounts, these regulations send a clear signal to any would-be bad actors that the authorities here take a dim view of such attacks and stand ready to take action.

But the anonymous and low-cost nature of information operations also mean that adversaries are unlikely to be completely deterred by laws alone. The ability to deploy such measures at scale via existing technologies such as mobile, digital and social media platforms, and potentially artificial intelligence in the near future, also means that trying to take down each and every account and platform will become a futile game of whack-a-mole.

The most effective counter to such threats is thus a population that is attuned to the nature of hostile information campaigns, aware of how to detect and identify disinformation, and motivated to do their part to prevent its spread.

The education authorities in Singapore have already begun exploring how to incorporate relevant lessons to start inoculating its youth against these threats from an early age. Other agencies such as the National Library Board are also conducting public outreach and awareness building activities to address the dangers of disinformation.

Together with trusted and credible mainstream media organisations which are focused on accurate and timely reporting, as well as other stakeholders such as independent fact-checking organisations, these efforts may be enough to form a basic and widespread first line of defence.

The onus then falls on citizens to take the threat seriously and work together as a society to ensure they do not fall prey to the likes of Guo and his network, now and in the future.

Nicholas Fang is director for security and global affairs at independent think tank, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. He is a former nominated member of parliament and is founder of Black Dot Research, a market and social research consultancy that runs an independent fact-checking platform.

Source: CNA/aj
Advertisement

Also worth reading

Advertisement