Minister Ong Ye Kung’s Facebook post labeled as “fake news” by netizens

Netizens have branded a Facebook post put up by Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) and Second Minister for Defence Ong Ye Kung as “fake news”.

On Tuesday [Sept 12], Mr Ong posted a photo of an underwater iceberg on Facebook.

His caption stated that the photo “came from a former colleague, who in turn got it from a rig manager working on an offshore rig at Newfoundland.”

He continued: “This iceberg is estimated to weigh 300,000,000 tons. The sea was calm, sun directly overhead, and the diver managed to get a perfect shot.”

However, netizens recognised the image to be one produced in 1999 by Ralph A. Clevenger, a professional nature and underwater photographer. It is not a single photograph, but instead, a composite of four separate photographs.

Netizens then went on to deem his post as “fake news”.

One netizen said that as the Minister for Education, Mr Ong should have ensured proper citation for his public post – as required in schools as well.

Another even called upon Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam, who had announced in June that laws will be introduced to regulate fake news, to take action on this post.