Wake Up, Singapore’s Facebook page suspended by Meta

SINGAPORE: In an Instagram post on Friday morning (Oct 3), the alternative news site Wake Up, Singapore (WUSG) wrote that its Facebook page had been suspended by Meta for cybersecurity reasons.

WUSG posted a screenshot, said to be from Meta, saying that the page had been removed.

“We’ve confirmed that it does not follow our Community Standards on cybersecurity. As a result, we’ve removed your page.

“We know that this is disappointing, but we want to keep Facebook safe and welcoming for everyone.”

The screenshot contains a section that says the company’s rules are the same for everyone around the world.

In the caption, WUSG wrote, “This is ridiculous. Something similar happened to MalaysiaKini as well last week,” and that “no reasons or particulars were provided” for the suspension of its Facebook page. It added that there had been no hacking or phishing, and that WUSG “did not post anything,” which would have presumably been flagged for suspension.

What is Wake Up, Singapore?

According to its Medium page, WUSG was founded in 2013. It describes itself as a “community of young activists looking to bring alternative voices to the major issues in Singapore.”

WUSG’s founder and current editor-in-chief is lawyer and activist Ariffin Sha, who contested in this year’s General Election at Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC under the Singapore Democratic Party. Mr Sha started WUSG when he was just 19 years old.

Aside from Instagram, the news site’s other social media channels on X, Threads, Telegram, and YouTube are still up. However, its biggest reach and engagement appeared to have been on Facebook, where it had nearly 200,000 followers.

In 2022, WUSG was issued a correction direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) for having published the story of a woman who claimed to have miscarried after waiting for four hours to see a doctor at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. The story was found to be false.

WUSG apologised to KKH and took down the posts on the same day, explaining in further posts that the patient had lied to the news site.

What happened to Malaysiakini?

On Tuesday afternoon (Sept 30), Malaysiakini wrote that its English-language Facebook page, its KiniTV accounts, and at least one administrator’s personal Facebook account had been temporarily suspended on the same day that it had posted an exposé on “cybertroopers.”

According to Meta, the page had also violated its community standards on cybersecurity. After an appeal, however, the suspended accounts were restored. /TISG

Read also: Civil society groups, activists back Wake Up, Singapore as ‘platform of the people’