Lee Hsien Loong v Leong Sze Hian [2021] SGHC 66 in Singapore of false statements of fact, to suppress support for and counteract the effects of such communication, to safeguard against the use of online accounts for such communication and for information manipulation, to enable measures to be taken to enhance transparency of online political advertisements, and for related matters”. The purpose of the POFMA is thus to avoid or minimise damage to the country and its people or public confidence in the government and its agencies engendered by online falsehoods. However, the POFMA does not provide individuals with any right or cause of action arising from a false and defamatory allegation against them. This is a key distinction. While the POFMA is aimed at online falsehoods which trigger questions of the public interest, a defamation action is “fundamentally an action to vindicate a person’s reputation on a matter as to which he has been falsely defamed”, and the damages awarded in a defamation action “have to be regarded as the demonstrative mark of that vindication”: Tang Liang Hong v Lee Kuan Yew and another and other appeals [1997] 3 SLR(R) 576 at [128]. It bears particular note that the POFMA does not introduce any causes of action for individuals. Rather, it imposes criminal liability, which arises in the public sphere and which is not a substitute for the tort of defamation, which operates in the private sphere. I am guided by the observation of the Court of Appeal in ACB v Thomson Medical Pte Ltd and others [2017] 1 SLR 918 at [185] that “a criminal prosecution is, by design, a matter between the State and an accused person; it is not a mechanism for victims to seek vindication of their private interests”. The POFMA and the law of defamation thus serve markedly different ends, and I am unable to accept the defendant’s suggestion that the latter has been constrained by the former. 51 I am fortified in my conclusion on this point by the clear and unequivocal observations made in the Parliamentary Debates on the POFMA. 27