Two youths arrested for posting racist comments
By Verena Lim
my paper
Monday, Jul 02, 2012
Police have arrested two 17-year-old male Chinese youths for allegedly posting racist remarks online.
They had allegedly made derogatory comments aimed at a minority race here and were arrested last Thursday and Friday. This came after two reports on the racist posts, found on Facebook and Twitter, were lodged last Wednesday.
The police said in a statement yesterday that the posts could "promote ill-will and hostility between different races in Singapore".
It is understood that the two suspects are not related. Investigations are ongoing.
Netizens expressed outrage on Twitter over the posts, calling the suspects "racist" and "shallow" after a screenshot of two offending posts went viral last Wednesday.
One tweet of the screenshot had at least 92 re-tweets.
The police said that they take a "stern view" of the matter, adding that the public "should let the investigations take their course and refrain from adding comments that may further inflame the situation".
Police added that anyone who re-posts or makes offensive comments on the racist posts, and is found to have committed an offence, "will be dealt with in accordance with the law".
This is not the first incident of online acts of racism by youth this year. In March, a Nanyang Polytechnic student known as Shimun Lai wrote racist remarks on her Facebook and Twitter accounts.
She eventually expressed deep regret and apologised for her actions.
Under the Sedition Act, anyone found guilty of promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes here can be fined up to $5,000, jailed for up to three years, or both.
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