Singapore blocks 10 websites set up by foreign actors over potential hostile information threat
Authorities have issued directions under a broadcasting law, and will review FICA or the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act to see how it can be used to take preemptive action against websites.
Fabian Koh
22 Oct 2024 05:00PM (Updated: 22 Oct 2024 05:41PM)
SINGAPORE: The Singapore government has blocked 10 websites set up by foreign actors which authorities said could be used to mount hostile information campaigns (HICs) here.
The websites have been observed to masquerade as Singapore websites by spoofing or using terms associated with the country in their domain name, while incorporating familiar local features and visuals, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said on Tuesday (Oct 22).
“They also carried content on Singapore, some of which were generated by artificial intelligence (AI),” the organisations added in a joint press release.
“These are common tactics used by malicious foreign actors: Build websites which can attract a local following, that may subsequently be used as platforms to mount HICs.”
It is therefore "in the public interest" to disable access to the 10 inauthentic websites for users in Singapore, by issuing directions under the Broadcasting Act.
In response to media queries, MHA said investigations show that no Singaporeans are involved in operating any of the websites, and that none of the websites has mounted a HIC against Singapore.
"The level of exposure of Singaporeans to these 10 websites is assessed to be currently low. However, the websites could potentially be used to mount HICs against Singapore in the future," the ministry added.
The government is also reviewing the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (FICA), to see how it could be used to take preemptive action against websites.
FICA was used in July to block nearly 100 social media accounts linked to exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.
LINKS TO GLOBAL NETWORKS
The blocked websites are:- zaobaodaily.com
- singaporeinfomap.com
- Singaporeera.com
- Singdaotimes.com
- Todayinsg.com
- Lioncitylife.com
- Singapuranow.com
- Voasg.com
- Singdaopr.com
- Alamak.io
Most of them are associated with global networks of inauthentic news websites previously identified by cybersecurity researchers to have conducted HICs and influence campaigns in other countries, said MHA and IMDA.
Two of them – www.zaobaodaily.com and www.singaporeinfomap.com – have domain names closely related or similar to legitimate Singapore-related websites. For instance, the official website of Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore's largest Chinese-language newspaper, is actually www.zaobao.com.sg.
The content on these sites may hence mislead audiences into thinking they reflect official positions or local sentiments in Singapore, said the two government agencies.
The two sites are also allegedly part of a network linked to Shanghai Haixun Technology, a Chinese public relations firm, according to research by Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant in 2023.
A year earlier, Mandiant found that websites in this network “present themselves primarily as independent news outlets from different regions across the world and publish content in 11 languages”, in what researchers dubbed the HaiEnergy influence operation.
Mandiant found that the campaign “leveraged services and infrastructure belonging to Haixun to host and distribute content”, with 72 websites used to target audiences across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
It has carried content criticising the United States and its allies; while supporting the Chinese government’s reform of Hong Kong’s electoral system.
Among the other blocked websites, seven have the word "Singapore" or associated terms – including Singapura, Singdao and Lioncity – in their domain name, and publish content related to the country.
“They carried content which was identical to that carried by another foreign newswire which appears to have conducted HICs and influence campaigns against other countries,” MHA and IMDA noted.
These seven sites belong to a network under public relations firm SeaPRwire, according to press releases issued by the firm itself. And the sites have run articles that were replicated across each other as well as on the TimesNewswire website, which has a "strategic partnership" with SeaPRwire according to the latter.
Digital threat research group The Citizen Lab reported earlier this year that TimesNewswire also features prominently in an influence campaign involving at least 123 websites operating in China, but posing as local news outlets in 30 countries across Europe, Asia, and Latin America to spread pro-Beijing disinformation.
The campaign draws much of its content from TimesNewswire, with around 100 domains linking back to the entity - which has also been associated with the HaiEnergy operation.
The last website, Alamak.io, masquerades as a Singaporean site by using the local colloquial expression as its domain name, and carrying Singapore-related news which paraphrases local media articles.
This includes those from Singapore news outlets CNA and The Straits Times, whose articles have been, in some cases, repurposed for the inauthentic site.
“Investigations found that the majority of the articles published on this website were likely to have been written with Al tools,” said MHA and IMDA.
“This website also published commentaries on sociopolitical issues, including one that falsely alleged that Singapore had allowed other countries to conduct their biological warfare research activities here.”
Alamak.io has carried several articles written by Russia's ambassador to Singapore Nikolay Kudashev, on issues such as Russia-ASEAN relations and with headlines like "Replacing the Rules-Based Neocolonial Framework".
REVIEW OF FOREIGN INTERFERENCE LAW
MHA and IMDA added that there were currently no provisions in the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act of 2021 to preemptively act against websites, whether inauthentic or not.
Singapore to block nearly 100 social media accounts linked to Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui
“For example, an Account Restriction Direction, which is an anticipatory direction, can only be given to a provider of a social media service and/or electronic service but not websites,” they said. “The government is reviewing the Act to see how this can be addressed.”The authorities urged Singaporeans to remain vigilant when consuming content online, and to be alert to such inauthentic websites and the threat they pose.
“There are many overseas cases where malicious foreign actors had created and used inauthentic news websites to propagate false narratives to sway the target population's sentiments, in order to advance their own interests,” they said.
“They do so by inciting social tension, exploiting societal fault lines, manipulating elections, or undermining confidence and trust in public institutions.”
