5 April 2025: The mystery of the Facebook 'like'

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Who 'liked' the Facebook post? This has been a hot topic of conversation recently, after Monday of Palestine Solidarity (MPS) drew attention to a Facebook post by Calvin Cheng, in which the former Nominated Member of Parliament and PAP fanboy expressed the desire to send pro-Palestine activists off to Gaza. As if it isn't gross enough to use Gaza—a site of long-time oppression, brutal violence and acute suffering—as a gotcha to take a swipe at activists, MPS pointed out that two government ministers actually 'liked' the post. They were Tan Kiat How, the Senior Minister of State for the Ministries of Digital Development and Information and National Development, and Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Tan later responded to MPS and said he might have "accidentally clicked that". He unliked the post and said that he didn't agree with Cheng. It took Vivian a longer time to respond, and when he did, his statement immediately invited more questions:

If he, like Tan, had said it was an issue of fat fingers, it would have been embarrassing and people might or might not have believed him, but this statement almost looks like it was designed to make people get suspicious and ask more questions. If he didn't 'like' the post, who did? What does the reference to enhancing account security mean? Is the minister implying that his official account had been breached in some way? Did someone hack his page just to—of all things a hacker or mischievous internet troll could do—'like' that one random post? Or is he suggesting that there was some sort of glitch that mysteriously 'liked' that post?

A ministry spokesperson told the media that this "unauthorised activity" has been reported to Meta and the company is investigating. As far as I've seen, Meta hasn't come out to say anything, so it's not clear whether this is a serious investigation or a "thanks for reporting this issue, we'll look into it" sort of thing.

Regardless of whose finger jabbed that 'like', it's clear the foreign affairs minister has read what Cheng wrote. A curt "I do not share those views" is far from a strong response to a suggestion to ship almost 1,000 Singaporean citizens passionate about ending genocide to the site of ethnic cleansing, with the added condition that they "never come back". Cheng has since been accused of Islamophobia; Mohamed Jufrie bin Mahmood, an opposition politician, posted on Facebook that he's made a police report against Cheng. In response, Cheng categorically rejected these accusations and said he's asked his lawyers to write to Jufrie and others to get them to retract their statements. Messy messy.

As if recognising that simple "I don't agree" comments aren't cutting it, other PAP ministers have come out to offer their two cents on Cheng's post. "His views on Palestine and Israel, I can say are quite different from mine. I have a very sharply different view on Israel-Palestine from Mr Calvin Cheng," K Shanmugam, the minister for home affairs and law, told the press. "I previously said in November 2023 that Israel's actions are illegal and oppressive to Palestinians, and that remains my view." (It's almost like he wasn't the one who kicked things off by posting a selectively edited video of two activists at his Meet-the-People Session and mischaracterising their visit as a deliberately disruptive Monday for Palestine Solidarity action 🙄)

Masagos Zulkifli, Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs, weighed in, too: "Here at home, Singaporeans of all backgrounds come together in solidarity. The fact that people of different ethnicities and religions stand united in calling for peace speaks volumes. It reflects our deep values of justice, humanity, and mutual respect. I disagree with Calvin Cheng’s views about the Israel-Palestine conflict."

Such comments would be so much better if the state wasn't also launching a whole bunch of ludicrous investigations into young Singaporeans demanding the very "justice, humanity, and mutual respect" Masagos trumpets. But here we are.

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The Internal Security Act was used against two teenagers recently. A 15-year-old girl, the first female teen to be on the receiving end of the ISA, has been issued a restriction order, which puts her under the Internal Security Department's surveillance and control. Individuals issued with restriction orders aren't allowed to change their home address or travel out of Singapore or even change jobs without the ISD's permission; they're also not allowed to do things like access the Internet or social media, contribute to publications or join organisations without ISD approval.

A 17-year-old boy has also been detained. In its statement, the ISD says that he identified as an "East Asian supremacist". The ISD highlights self-radicalisation and far-right extremism among youth as a worrying trend:

Both cases highlight the persistent threat of youth radicalisation in Singapore. Since 2015, ISD has dealt with 17 youths aged 20 and below under the ISA. All were self-radicalised online. Of these 17, nine aspired to carry out attacks in Singapore. Those radicalised are getting younger, with the 15-year-old being the first female youth and the second youngest, to be issued with an ISA order.

Concerns about the content that young people are consuming online—and the worldviews that might get entrenched—aren't unique to Singapore. The Netflix series, Adolescence, was made in the UK to explore the themes of toxic masculinity, harmful social media influences and their impact on impressionable young people easily overwhelmed or confused by the daily flood of information and complicated, noisy politics of our era. (I've watched the first episode and am still trying to work myself up to watching the rest of this gut-punch series.) These are genuine concerns that we need to grapple with as countries and societies, and policing, detention and internal security laws aren't going to cut it.

I found this short interview with Matthew Johnson, the director of education at MediaSmarts (a media literacy outfit in Canada), pretty helpful. In a nutshell: the adults in young people's lives need to take on an active presence in addressing these issues, from talking to them at a young age about things like stereotyping to being involved in the way they consume media. It's not just about monitoring and controlling (although that's necessary with really young kids) but also about making sure that, as they grow, kids are equipped with critical skills to manage and think critically about what they consume and do online themselves.

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