Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment) Act 2024

Record SG-05 · Act 34 of 2024

Issued by: Parliament of Singapore (Bill introduced by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information)
Jurisdiction: Singapore
Level · region: National · South & Southeast Asia
Published / adopted: 2024-10-15
In force: 2025-01-22
Language: English
Official identifier: Act 34 of 2024

Summary

During an election period (writ to close of polling), it bans publishing, boosting, sharing or reposting online election advertising that is digitally generated or manipulated (AI deepfakes or conventional edits) and realistically shows a candidate saying or doing something they did not. Returning Officers can issue corrective directions. Individuals face fines up to S$1,000 and/or 12 months' jail; social media services that fail to comply face fines up to S$1 million.

Safety topics

deepfakes & synthetic mediaaccountability & liability

Scope

Borderline scope Elections law that is not AI-specific but is the operative instrument on deepfakes of candidates (scope-decisions: deepfakes); include with a scope_note.

Open question

scope_note contains research-process language (scope-decisions); move it to verification.note Issue #157

The record shows its last checked values until a maintainer decides; the decision is recorded in its history.

Status notes

Introduced as Bill No. 29/2024, read the first time on 9 Sep 2024; Minister Josephine Teo moved the second reading on 15 Oct 2024, and the second and third readings took place that day. The Act commenced on 22 Jan 2025. It inserts s. 61MA into the Parliamentary Elections Act 1954 and s. 42LA into the Presidential Elections Act 1991, extends the Returning Officer's corrective directions to the new offence and lets candidates request them; a candidate who knowingly makes a false or misleading declaration in a request commits an illegal practice. The ban does not apply to private or domestic communications or to news published by authorised news agencies, and a person who did not know and had no reason to believe that the representation was false has a defence. In the second-reading speech the Minister also announced a Code of Practice under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act requiring social media services to counter digitally generated or manipulated content at all times, to be issued in 2025.

Sources

Open the official source https://parliament.gov.sg/docs/default-source/bills-introduced/elections-(integrity-of-online-advertising)-(amendment)-bill-29-2024.pdf

Secondary source: https://www.eld.gov.sg/Resources/01%20Parliamentary%20Elections%20Act%201954.pdf

Local copy

Archived. Last attempt 2026-10-18 03:22:42 UTC

Official source (third-party copy, not published) archive/SG-05/2026-10-18/official.pdf

Retrieved 2026-10-18 03:22:47 UTC

SHA-256 e60ed3752dcece448181ead5262dbaaf57f62ebbc205aba49eedb3daaa1b8792

Secondary source (third-party copy, not published) archive/SG-05/2026-10-18/secondary.pdf

Retrieved 2026-10-18 03:22:49 UTC

SHA-256 e78812c63d6bec07a698e164fc97524f6c51bfe8a49d827d6ce913bd7d8f389d

Verification

The instrument's own official text, or an official register, was stored and confirms the title, date and status. checked 2026-10-18 · official-url-fetched

Recheck of 18 Oct 2026. Stored and read: Bill No. 29/2024 on parliament.gov.sg (copy of 11 Oct 2026, unchanged when checked on 18 Oct 2026), which gives the short title of the Act, the first reading, the offences, penalties and corrective directions; Minister Josephine Teo's second-reading speech of 15 Oct 2024 on MDDI's newsroom (secondary source, copy of 18 Oct 2026); and, stored in this run, the Elections Department's informal consolidation of the Parliamentary Elections Act 1954 (eld.gov.sg, version in force from 28 Mar 2025), whose legislative history lists Act 34 of 2024 with Bill 29/2024, first reading 9 Sep 2024, second and third readings 15 Oct 2024 and commencement 22 Jan 2025, and whose s. 61MA and related provisions carry the annotation '[Act 34 of 2024 wef 22/01/2025]'. The Act as published in the Acts Supplement on Singapore Statutes Online could not be stored (HTTP 403, also with the browser), so the date of assent is not recorded and the official_url remains the Bill as introduced. Version 1's identifier (the Bill number with the inserted sections in parentheses) is replaced by the Act number; the sections are in the notes. Version 1's account of first use at the 2025 General Election came from a law firm (Baker McKenzie), and its remark on the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act 2025 rests on no stored file; both were removed from the notes.

Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-18: 10 field(s) supported, fixes applied to scope_note.

History

2026-10-18scope_note: – → Elections law that is not AI-specific but is the operative instrument on deepfak — pipeline run 2026-10-18-recheck-south-asia-1 (recheck), candidate SG-052026-10-18-recheck-south-asia-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-18notes: First reading 9 Sep 2024; second reading and passage 15 Oct 2024. It amends the → Introduced as Bill No. 29/2024, read the first time on 9 Sep 2024; Minister Jose — readings, passage and commencement from the ELD consolidation; version 1's first use at GE2025 (law-firm reports), its remark on the unconfirmed gazette number and on the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act 2025 rest on no stored file and were removed; inserted sections, exclusions, the defence and the POFMA Code of Practice added from the Bill and the speech2026-10-18-recheck-south-asia-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-18secondary_url: https://www.mddi.gov.sg/newsroom/opening-speech-by-minister-josephine-teo-at-the → https://www.eld.gov.sg/Resources/01%20Parliamentary%20Elections%20Act%201954.pdf — the ELD consolidation, stored in this run, is the only stored source for the Act number, passage and commencement; the second-reading speech it replaces as secondary_url stays as evidence in this run2026-10-18-recheck-south-asia-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-18official_identifier: Bill No. 29/2024 (inserts s. 61MA Parliamentary Elections Act 1954 and s. 42LA P → Act 34 of 2024 — the Act number, Act 34 of 2024, from the ELD consolidation's legislative history; version 1 gave the Bill number with a description of the inserted sections (moved to the notes)2026-10-18-recheck-south-asia-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-18date_in_force: – → 2025-01-22 — commencement on 22 Jan 2025 (ELD consolidation, legislative history and annotations '[Act 34 of 2024 wef 22/01/2025]'); version 1 left it null2026-10-18-recheck-south-asia-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Citation

Parliament of Singapore (Bill introduced by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information). Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment) Act 2024 [Act 34 of 2024]. 2024-10-15. https://parliament.gov.sg/docs/default-source/bills-introduced/elections-(integrity-of-online-advertising)-(amendment)-bill-29-2024.pdf. Status: In force; verified 2026-10-18 (level A). Local copy archive/SG-05/2026-10-18/official.pdf retrieved 2026-10-18 03:22:47 UTC, SHA-256 e60ed3752dcece448181ead5262dbaaf57f62ebbc205aba49eedb3daaa1b8792. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record SG-05.

Improve this record

Know of an amendment, a status change or an error? Report news or an error on GitHub; the form opens with this record filled in.