BREAKING — POFMA goes live, Competent Authority appointed, subsidiary legislation, and more
Big news.
POFMA in effect
The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 will come into operation from 2 October 2019. The Minister for Communications and Information issued the relevant notification on 30 September 2019, approximately five months after Parliament passed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill, and four months after the President signed it into law. The Government Gazette published the notification on 1 October 2019.
Competent Authority appointed
The Minister appointed the Info-Communications Media Development Authority as the “Competent Authority” for POFMA purposes. This appointment means the IMDA will be the executive body responsible for issuing the majority of the directions, orders, notices, and other communications made under the Act. The Gazette published the appointment on 1 October 2019. It will take effect from 2 October 2019.
Subsidiary legislation
The government and the court’s Rules Committee issued the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Regulations 2019 and the Supreme Court of Judicature (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation) Rules 2019, respectively. The two instruments provide greater detail on how the Act will apply on a day-to-day basis. They were made in late September, published in the Gazette on 1 October 2019, and will come into effect from 2 October 2019.
Other stuff
The government and court issued other notifications and orders that accompany the above. Click here to see POFMA Watch’s post that tries to piece it all together.
This article has been edited post-publication — I wasn’t happy with the way it initially went out due to the semi-frenzied state I was in at the time #pofmania.
Click here for POFMA Watch’s Twitter feed and here for its methodology. All the usual “personal blog” caveats apply (in particular, this blog and its posts reflect the author’s personal views only and not those of any other party; neither the blog nor its posts should be understood as constituting legal advice in any way).
