Singapore’s fake news site, “All Singapore Stuff”, is being
investigated for allegedly posting an article that claims the Police did not
take any action after a report of underage sex was made. The article also
claims that the Police even advised the girl to drop the case. The new report
also made the claim that the girl’s school principal did not take her report seriously
as well.
The investigation was initiated after a police report was “… lodged by a member of the public, whose identity is believed to have been misused as the contributor of the article.”
The investigation was initiated after a police report was “… lodged by a member of the public, whose identity is believed to have been misused as the contributor of the article.”
Is this a huge surprise? Nope.
“All Singapore Stuff” is well-known to be a fake-news site
that intentionally posts exaggerated and often made up articles with sensational
headlines on social media to attract attention (ie: “Clicks-to-website”) for
generating web advertising revenue. Just look at their website - almost half of the page area is taken up by advertisements.
Articles are often written with a slant to stir up anti-PAP emotions with
little regard to facts or the context of the situation, much like the defunct site “The Real
Singapore”. Their “contributors” are almost always anonymous, and the
articles are posted by an “editor” going by the name “Farhan”.
From time to time when their bull-shit is exposed, the site
will simply defend themselves by claiming that any mistakes were “unintentional”
and that the article/information was based on “contributions” from their
readers - thus shifting their responsible for posting nonsense to all to the "
Which idiot you want to bluff? Building collapse and the first thing that "Bhagonwali" wants people to know is that BTO owners are unhappy about workmanship of their flats? What about those resident's safety and well-being? Was anyone hurt? Are there people still trapped? Have the authorities been notified? Aren't these points more pertinent to the news of the "collapse"?
This outrageous hoax was immediately debunked by both the HDB as well as Punggol residents on the same day. In this particular case, how hard would it be for the site editors to fact-check this "reader contribution" before posting it?
It is obvious that such an serious incident as a HDB floor collapsing would have immediately been reported to the police, SCDF, HDB etc. It would have been easy for the site to confirm the story.
But did the editor think or bother to check with the HDB, police or SCDF to verify the story?
But did the editor think or bother to check with the HDB, police or SCDF to verify the story?
Nope. Clearly All Singapore Stuff's priority was to first post the story first on their social media in order to drive web traffic to their site. Fact-checking is clearly not important to them, even in a situation as potentially serious and tragic as a building collapse.
As usual, “All Singapore Stuff” merely replaced the article with an "apology" and once again used the excuse that they were also taken in by the hoax, and conveniently shifted the hoax's responsibility to their "readers' contributions".
Facts and Truth be damned. Web-clicks and making money are more important to the people hiding behind sites like "All Singapore Stuff”
Sure, they've 'apologised' the spreading the hoax. But they have already benefited financially from the deluge of worried web-clicks to their website.
Their revenue model is essentially driven by clicks and
eyeballs to their website. So the more hyped up and viral their posts are, the more
web advertising revenue is created for the people behind sites like “All Singapore Stuff” and "States Time Review".
It was really only a matter of time before “All Singapore Stuff”
crossed the line in their quest to boost their site’s popularity with the most outrageous
anti-PAP rhetoric articles possible, as shown in this latest incident.
Will this mark the beginning of the end for “All Singapore Stuff”?
Read more here:
Mothership: All Singapore Stuff posts hoax about collapsed roof at Punggol Waterway Terraces, made SPF/SCDF go down to investigate (11 Nov 2016)
Channel NewsAsia - Report of Punggol Waterway Terraces roof collapse a 'hoax': HDB (11 Nov 2016)
Lianhe Zaobao: 水滨台组屋屋顶坍塌？原是虚惊一场 (Mandarin) (11 Nov 2016)
