Leong Sze Hian banned from sharing on Facebook

Singapore—Blogger and financial adviser Leong Sze Hian says he has been banned on Facebook from posting to any groups until May 18, and from sharing links until May 14.

Using a popular word at the moment, he wrote, “Banned by Facebook!

Umbrage!”

He has been banned while trying to raise money on Facebook.

Mr Leong is in the middle of crowdfunding almost S$130,000 to pay the legal costs and disbursements in the libel case filed against him by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

He was successful in his earlier crowdfunding effort to raise the same amount to pay as damages to PM Lee on the High Court’s orders.

Mr Leong posted a photo of a letter from the High Court dated May 10 reiterating the“appropriate costs payable by the Defendant” are S$50,000 in legal costs and S$79,327.22 in disbursements, or a total of $129,327.22.

He has thus far been able to raise S$65,032 from 915 people since he started his second crowdfunding drive last month.

Mr Leong’s lawyer, opposition leader Lim Tean, tried to have the amount payable reduced, but this was not allowed by the High Court.

Mr Lim had submitted “very detailed and extensive written objections” to the court, the blogger added, but to no avail.

Mr Leong had pointed out that an activist sued by PM Lee, Mr Roy Ngerng, is required to pay only S$29,000 in legal costs and disbursements though Mr Ngerng’s case lasted longer than his own.

The blogger seems to feel that the Facebook ban will slow down his crowdfunding efforts.

Therefore, he appealed to his supporters to share his posts.

“I would be very grateful if you could write something & share with your friends

“I appeal once again to my courageous fellow Singaporeans for your support. Thanks so much,” he wrote on Wednesday (May 12).

Mr Leong did not say why Facebook banned him from posting links and sharing in groups.

But someone (or more than one person) may have reported him for a violation of the social media site’s Community Standards.

Facebook says that when people are temporarily blocked from sharing in groups, “it may be because a group admin has temporarily turned off your ability to post and comment in their group. They might have temporarily muted you, temporarily limited how frequently you can post or comment or slowed down comments on a post.”

Facebook says people may also be temporarily blocked if they have posted a lot in a short amount of time, shared posts that were marked as unwelcome or shared something that goes against its Community Standards.

/TISG

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Leong Sze Hian faces backlash for crowdfunding, shares hate messages he received