PART 1 | 1. This Act may be cited as the Protection from Harassment Act. |
2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —| “author”, in relation to a statement of fact, means the originator of the statement; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “communication” means any words, image (moving or otherwise), message, expression, symbol or other representation that can be seen, heard or otherwise perceived by any person, or any combination of these; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “computing resource service” means a service that provides processing capability or storage capacity through the use of any computer hardware or software; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “correction order” means an order made under section 15B; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “court”, for the purposes of sections 12 and 13 and Division 2 of Part 3, means a District Court (including the Protection from Harassment Court) or a Family Court; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/04/2020] |
| “disabling order” means an order made under section 15C; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/04/2020] |
| “electronic” means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic or similar capabilities; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “entity” means any company or association or body of persons (whether corporate or unincorporate), but excludes any public agency; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “general correction order” means an order made under section 15E; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/04/2020] |
“identity information” means any information that, whether on its own or with other information, identifies or purports to identify an individual, including (but not limited to) any of the following:| (a) | the individual’s name, residential address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, national registration identity card number, passport number, signature (whether handwritten or electronic) or password; | | (b) | any photograph or video recording of the individual; | | (c) | any information about the individual’s family, employment or education; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
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| “interim disabling order” means an order made under section 16AA; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/04/2020] |
| “interim notification order” means an order made under section 16B; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “interim stop publication order” means an order made under section 16A; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “internet intermediary” means a person who provides any internet intermediary service; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
“internet intermediary service” means —| (a) | a service that allows end‑users to access materials originating from third parties, using the internet; | | (b) | a service of transmitting materials to end‑users on or through the internet; or | | (c) | a service of displaying, to an end-user who uses the service to make an online search, an index of search results, each of which links that end‑user to content hosted or stored at a location which is separate from the location of the index of search results, |
| but excludes any act done for the purpose of or that is incidental to the provision of — |
| (d) | a service of giving the public access to the internet; or | | (e) | a computing resource service; | | | | Examples of internet intermediary services are — |
| | | (a) | social networking services; |
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| | | (b) | search engine services; |
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| | | (c) | content aggregation services; |
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| | | (d) | internet‑based messaging services; and |
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| | | (e) | video‑sharing services. |
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[Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
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“material” means anything that consists of or contains a statement; | | | | Examples of a material are a message, a post, an article, a speech, a picture, a video recording and a sound recording. |
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[Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/04/2020] |
| “offending communication”, in relation to any contravention of a provision under this Act, means any communication or statement made in contravention of that provision; |
| “online location” means any internet website, webpage, chatroom or forum, or any other thing that is hosted on a computer (within the meaning of the Computer Misuse Act (Cap. 50A)) and can be seen, heard or otherwise perceived by means of the internet; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “Part 3 proceedings” means civil proceedings for claims and orders under Part 3; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “Protection from Harassment Court” means a District Court designated under section 16E(1)(a) as a Protection from Harassment Court; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/06/2021] |
| “Protection from Harassment Court Judge” means a District Judge designated under section 16E(1)(b) as a Protection from Harassment Court Judge; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/06/2021] |
| “public agency” has the meaning given by section 128A(6) of the Evidence Act (Cap. 97); [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “publish”, in relation to a communication or statement, means to make the communication or statement available in any form such that the communication or statement is or can be heard, seen or otherwise perceived by the public in Singapore or a member of the public in Singapore, and includes cause to be published; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “Registrar” means the registrar of the State Courts, and includes a deputy registrar of the State Courts; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/06/2021] |
| [Deleted by Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “related person”, in relation to a person, means another person about whose safety or well‑being the firstmentioned person would reasonably be expected to be seriously concerned; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “relevant party”, in relation to an order, means an individual or entity against which the order is made; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “shared residence”, in relation to the victim and the respondent who are the subjects of a protection order, means the premises at which the victim and the respondent are, or have been, living together as members of the same household; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “statement” means any words (including abbreviations and initials), numbers, image (moving or otherwise), sounds, symbols or other representation, or a combination of any of these; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “stop publication order” means an order made under section 15A; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] |
| “stop publishing”, in relation to a communication, means taking the reasonable steps to ensure that the communication is not made available in any form such that the communication is or can be seen, heard or otherwise perceived by the public in Singapore or any member of the public in Singapore; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/01/2020] [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/04/2020] |
| “targeted correction order” means an order made under section 15D; [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/04/2020] |
| “targeted interim notification order” means an order made under section 16BA. [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/04/2020] |
(2) In this Act —| (a) | a statement of fact is a statement which a reasonable person seeing, hearing or otherwise perceiving it would consider to be a representation of fact; and | | (b) | a statement is false if it is false or misleading whether wholly or in part, and whether on its own or in the context in which it appears. [Act 17 of 2019 wef 01/04/2020] |
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