As George Orwell said in Animal Farm,
On Sunday evening (27/4/2014) , I managed to identify an imposter of Gilbert Goh on Facebook.
This imposter created a fake Gilbert Goh account, complete with the same photos and information and commented on the real Gilbert’s posts.
The comments made by the imposter were intended to make people think Gilbert was truly xenophobic and out of his mind, in fact it was the nature of the comment that made me check the profile of the person.
I’ve attached the imposter’s comment below.
Fortunately, I was able to identify the imposter 7 minutes after he commented. I also called Gilbert, who was giving out flyers for the May Day Protest, to inform him.
I also shared the imposter’s comment and account publicly on Wake Up, Singapore and The Real Singapore too. I know we may not always agree with Gilbert’s views but what the imposter did was vicious and extremely inappropriate.
A police report has been made and you can read more about it here:
Although personally, I do not expect anything to come out of these police reports.
The same thing happened when Mr. Kenneth Jeyaratenam made repeated police reports regarding death threats against his son too, minimal response and the culprit is still at large.
While on the other hand. the culprit for the Anonymous attacks was found within a week.
I think by now we might be aware of the PAP Internet Brigade or PAP IB for short.
These are a group of people who spread pro-PAP messages and propaganda online.And just like online pro-government groups in other countries, I wouldn’t be surprised if these guys get paid for what they do.
They are like the unofficial online propaganda wing for the powers that be. Their main mode of outreach is through their page ‘Fabrications about the PAP.
The day before, I saw some familiar faces on FAP.
They actually dug out an old post from October 2013 to identify who were the people behind the page ‘Wake Up, Singapore.’
Someone sure has a lot of free time on their hands and is pretty dedicated to his cause to dig this out without getting paid for it. Well, most activists already know that I’m the founder of Wake Up Singapore and it isn’t something I hide.
FAP, if you’re reading this, help me understand what the purpose of that post was, because I just don’t seem to get it.
Yes, I haven’t turned 17 yet and my other admins are young too, but that doesn’t mean we can be admins of a Facebook Page right?
The Media Development Authority and MICA always speak highly about Internet Responsibility, condemning trolls and even calling them a ‘disgrace to Singapore.’ Well, then why the double standards for internet equality and rights?
Why did Singapore Cannabis Awareness with 2000 likes get shut down while pages like STOMP with 22,000 people against it can still parade around proudly?
Well, the internet is the place for freedom of expression and it better stay that way.
The last thing we need is big brother to make sure we read the right things on the internet. It also has paved the way for many political awakenings and it will only continue to do so.
This makes it a serious threat to the Government. We should utilize the freedom on the internet to the fullest, let us not just be keyboard warriors.
Ariffin Sha
*The author blogs at http://ariffin-sha.com/