Singapore — Netizens expressed their anger after the police said in a Nov 25 media statement that a 45-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man are under investigation for allegedly encouraging people to overwhelm public hotlines with feedback amid the ongoing Covid pandemic. The couple allegedly urged people to flood the hotlines belonging to MOH and MSF Singapore — the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social and Family Development.
The man and woman are understood to be Ms Iris Koh and her husband, Mr Raymond Ng, according to The Straits Times (ST).
Ms Koh founded the group “Healing the Divide,” which has been in the news lately for being called out by MOH for spreading falsehoods about Covid-19 and Covid vaccines.
The police said that the numbers that the couple were allegedly involved in instigating people to flood include those that help the public with COVID-19, including MOH’s Quality Service/Feedback hotline, the MSF Singapore hotline, and the National CARE Hotline.
A police report was lodged on Oct 21 saying that over 2,000 people in a Telegram group were incited to “overwhelm public hotlines through sharing their feedback on the stricter COVID-19 measures for unvaccinated people in public places.”
The message reportedly said that “nationwide ground feedback on the new measures” was being sought by the authorities “and that the public should call in to the MOH hotline, the MSF hotline, and the National CARE Hotline, and demand that their feedback gets pushed up to the respective call centre managers.”
Members were allegedly asked to flood the MOH, MSF Singapore and National CARE hotlines more than once.
The police said that the incitement from the couple “has the potential to obstruct the work of public servants,” and added that upon consulting with the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the couple is being investigated “for an alleged offence of abetment by instigation of persons to obstruct public servants in the discharge of their public functions under Section 186, read with Section 117 of the Penal Code.”
A conviction for this offence could mean that the couple may face jail time of up to three months, a fine of $2,500, or both.
ST reported last month that action may be taken against people who either inundate government hotlines such as MOH and MSF Singapore or incite others to do so.
“The incitement and carrying out of actions that aim to disrupt any essential call centre operations is illegal,” MOH and MSF told ST. “We take this matter very seriously, and will not hesitate to work with the police and enforcement agencies to take action where necessary.”
Members on a number of chat groups on Telegram had been asked to “flood” government lines, also to ostensibly provide feedback on the measures disallowing the unvaccinated to go to malls and other public spaces.
ST reported on Oct 18 that one such message had been sent to a 3000-member strong group called Healing the Divide Discussion and was posted later on Ms Koh’s personal channel.
She was quoted in the report as saying, “Asking people to flood the call centre for no genuine reason is wrong. I gave the numbers because I felt they would be better equipped to deal with the inquiries which I don’t have the answers for.”
On ST’s Facebook page, netizens were quick to condemn the couple’s actions.
Some called them “unethical and selfish.”
One commenter wrote that instead of “healing the divide,” their actions are “strengthening the divide.”
Another said they should be charged in the same way that those who prank call 995 or 999 are charged.
One called them a “menace during a public health crisis.”
On Nov 7, the Ministry of Health issued a statement noting that content from “Healing the Divide” had been removed from YouTube.
MOH wrote that the group “adopts an anti-vaccination stance and claims to warn people about the dangers of vaccination.”
The ministry added that the “Healing the Divide” YouTube channel “has a history of posting and sharing content that perpetuates falsehoods and misleading information about COVID-19 and vaccines.”
MOH also warned that the government will not hesitate to take “action against those who put the public’s health and well-being at risk by spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.” /TISG
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