Account Restriction Direction
40.—(1)  If the conditions in subsection (2) are satisfied, any Minister may instruct the Competent Authority to issue a direction to a prescribed internet intermediary requiring it to do one or both of the following:
(a)disallow its services from being used to communicate any statement in Singapore through one or more specified online accounts;
(b)disallow any person from using one or more specified online accounts to interact with any end‑user of its internet intermediary service in Singapore.
(2)  The conditions mentioned in subsection (1) are —
(a)the specified online account or accounts (called in this Part the specified online account) is or are created with the prescribed internet intermediary;
(b)either —
(i)a false statement of fact (called in this Part the subject statement) has been communicated in Singapore using the specified online account; or
(ii)coordinated inauthentic behaviour (called in this Part the subject behaviour) has been carried out using the specified online account;
(c)the Minister in subsection (1) has determined that the specified online account is an inauthentic online account or is controlled by a bot; and
(d)the Minister in subsection (1) is of the opinion that it is in the public interest to issue the Account Restriction Direction.
(3)  An Account Restriction Direction may specify that it has effect —
(a)indefinitely; or
(b)for a specified period not exceeding 3 months.
(4)  In determining whether an online account is an inauthentic online account or is controlled by a bot, the Minister must have regard to the following factors:
(a)whether any information used in creating the online account relates to a country or territory that is not the country or territory that the holder of the account is purportedly from;
(b)whether there is a pattern of suspicious activity carried out using the online account;
(c)the date on which the online account was created;
(d)any other factor that the Minister considers relevant.
(5)  An Account Restriction Direction must identify in sufficient detail the subject statement or the subject behaviour, as the case may be.
(6)  An Account Restriction Direction may require the prescribed internet intermediary to which it is issued to do an act in or outside Singapore.
(7)  A prescribed internet intermediary is responsible for the costs of complying with an Account Restriction Direction issued to it.
(8)  In this section, “specified” means specified in the Account Restriction Direction.