New Delhi: Singapore Saturday issued orders to social media platforms to block content likely emanating from China targeting Indians.
The Singaporean Ministry of Home Affairs issued the disabling directions under its domestic law after content circulating on YouTube, Facebook and X targeted the Indian community in the South East Asian nation, as well the Singapore’s model of multiculturalism.
“Last month, narratives started circulating online in the Chinese information space that Singapore is displaying anxiety over our cultural identity and ethnic politics. Shortly thereafter, online content emerged containing inflammatory narratives about Singapore’s cultural diversity and suggesting that Singapore was being overrun by Indians,” the Singaporean Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.
The statement added that the content asserted that Singapore’s “multiracial policy is a facade” meant to appeal to Western values, that the stability of the nation is due to its “majority Chinese demographics,” and that ethnic Indians would only favour their own community.
“Singapore’s culture is fundamentally Chinese, and the government’s approach of “decoupling” itself from China while neglecting the threat of a growing Indian community would lead to a negative outcome,” said the statement.
The content deceptively used images of crowded streets in neighbourhoods such as Little India and Indian devotees on Pagoda street to claim that the island country is overcrowded with Indians.
Xenophobic labels such as comparing the growth of the Indian community in Singapore as a “concentration of curry,” was noted by the Singaporean Police Forces in its assessments of the deregotary posts.
The assessments further identified the source of the social media content as Chinese platforms carried over to other platforms and websites.
“We have also observed deliberate efforts to spread more such content in our local information space. These are malicious efforts to sow discord by inciting ill-will against the Indian community in Singapore,” said the statement.
The statement added: “This includes Indian migrant workers in sectors such as construction who are here to make an honest living. They contribute to Singapore’s growth and development, and are valued members of our society.”
The latest action bye the Singaporean government directs social media platforms to take all reasonable measures to take down the deregotary posts and prevent their circulation.
Singapore does not believe that these posts are coordinated by any government agencies in China, but has grown organically through posts made by netizens from mainland China.
Singapore is not the only South East Asian country where the Indian community has faced growing xenophobic behaviour. Taiwan, the self-governing territory, which signed a mobility partnership with India recently has seen a spate of racist comments against Indian workers.
Just last month a political campaign poster in the self-governing territory, saw a candidate promising to ban Indian immigration into the country.
In 2023 small groups of protesters in Taiwan carried out demonstrations against Indian migrant labour. At the time the administration in Taiwan had linked the protests to “cognitive warfare” emanating from mainland China.
(Edited by Varnika Dhawan)