He cited the websites The Real Singapore which published an article claiming that a commotion between Thaipusam participants and the police was sparked by complaints from a Filipino family, the States Times Review which mocked former President S. R. Nathan with an article claiming near-zero turnout for his funeral, and All Singapore Stuff which reported eye-witness account of a collapsed HDB roof at Punggol Waterway Terraces which fooled the police and civil defence to investigate.
[2] The Minister claimed that fake news, when not debunked, can quickly cause harm to Singaporeans, panic to public, waste emergency resources, and damage reputations of businesses and people.
Among those who made submissions were media organisations, technology companies, foreign and local academics and experts, commentators, as well as members of the public.
[10] In its written representation, Facebook "do[es] not believe that legislation is the best approach" and that "Singapore already has a variety of existing laws and regulations which address hate speech, defamation and the spreading of false news".
Thum argued that these justifications were false claims made by politicians of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) for the purpose of political gain.
[12] The Select Committee convened public hearings from 14 to 29 March 2018, lasting eight days in total, where 79 individuals and organisations were invited to testify.
[13][14] On 22 March, Facebook's vice-president of public policy for Asia-Pacific, Simon Milner, was questioned by the Select Committee, who was concerned that the law was being introduced in "a rush" by Singapore, and that "legislation which is enacted in haste can often be regretted".
[15] On 29 March, the last day of the sitting of the Select Committee, Shanmugam questioned Thum about a paper he published in 2013 regarding Operation Coldstore and the formation of Malaysia.
[28] On 13 April, the Parliament Secretariat wrote to Thum to clarify his academic credentials following his claims to be a "research fellow in history" in his submission and holding "a visiting professorship in anthropology at Oxford University" during his oral testimony.