Fake news content which commits a transgression within the legal system in Singapore that can warrant a fine, imprisonment, or both.
Published in Chapter:
Crime-Fake News Nexus
Xingyu Chen (Home Team Behavioural Sciences Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore), John Yu (Home Team Behavioural Sciences Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore), Pamela Goh (Home Team Behavioural Sciences Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore),
Loo Seng Neo (Home Team Behavioural Sciences Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore), Verity Er (Home Team Behavioural Sciences, Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore), and
Majeed Khader (Home Team Behavioural Sciences Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 14
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9715-5.ch004
Abstract
Fake news has been a popular topic since the 2016 U.S. elections, where researchers have studied its impact on politics and social unrest. In recent times, there have been cases of fake news being perpetrated for criminal gain. For example, in Singapore, names of high-profile figures were used by scammers to trick people to invest in dubious cryptocurrency. Such cases highlight the emergence of a nexus between fake news and crime, for which there is scant literature. To enhance current understanding about this growing concern, this chapter examines 32 crime-fake news incidents in Singapore from 2013 to 2018. Based on a descriptive analysis of these cases, this chapter aims to answer the following questions: (1) What are the types of crime-fake news in Singapore? (2) What is the impact that it has in Singapore? (3) Who are these fake news creators and what motivates them? (4) What are the popular methods of transmitting crime-fake news? and (5) Who responds to the crime-fake news? In addition, implications in the areas of public education and crime prevention will be discussed.