Singapore Democrats
29 March 2018
Ms Sandhya Devanathan
Singapore Country Director
Facebook
and
Mr Simon Milner
Vice-President of Public Policy for
Asia Pacific
Facebook
Dear Ms Devanathan and Mr Milner,
The Singapore Democratic Party is concerned about the issue of deliberate online falsehoods and the fallout from the matter surrounding Cambridge Analytica, and how these subjects impact upon society and politics, particularly elections, in Singapore.
Such being the case, we would like to request for a meeting with you and/or other Facebook officials who might be able to address some of our concerns which include, but are not limited to, the following:
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Whether the Singapore government has requested for information on users and, if so, when and on what grounds.
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Whether any political party in Singapore have requested for information on users and, if so, when and on what grounds.
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Whether any group or individual either formally or informally affiliated to any political party in Singapore received data from Cambridge Analytica or any other similar organisation that might have used information taken from Facebook especially during the periods of the 2015 general election or the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election.
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Whether Facebook can make public the list of advertisements made by the Singapore government on Facebook and the amounts paid for these advertisements especially during the periods of the 2015 general election or the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election.
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Whether Facebook can make public the list of political parties and other political actors who have advertised on Facebook including the amounts paid for these advertisements especially during the periods of the 2015 general election or the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election.
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Whether any of the senior positions in Facebook’s Singapore office are occupied by persons who are actively involved with, or identified as potential election candidates of, any political party in Singapore.
Our concerns, of course, emanate from the revelation that Facebook user profiles have been utilised to influence the 2016 Presidential elections in the United States and, more importantly, whether such a practice was employed in Singapore. We look forward to clarifying with you some of these issues.
In the interest of transparency and full disclosure, and because such a matter is currently of intense interest in Singapore and around the world, we would like to make this letter available to the public.
Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Paul Ananth Tambyah
Chairman
Singapore Democratic Party