Lee Hsien Loong v Leong Sze Hian [2021] SGHC 66 Singapore. Though the plaintiff points out that no contrary narrative had been put forward by the defence, the figures the plaintiff sought to rely on nonetheless remained speculative. In any event, even if the spread of the Post was to thousands, it is not clear that it would be in the region of tens of thousands or more. 103 Given what Dr Phan had actually testified, and in the absence of any support for any higher figure actually occurring on the facts, I could not accept the plaintiff’s account. I was mindful in this regard that, framed as it was in fairly general terms and in reliance on academic studies gauging overseas contexts, the plaintiff’s case could have been applied to a whole swathe of situations such that a broad reach for a post could be asserted for a huge number of posts. To my mind, context remains key. The Court has to be satisfied that the evidence goes beyond merely showing that a generic post (or even one spreading false political claims) could potentially spread widely, and instead that, on the facts of the case, there is enough context to ground the inference it is invited to draw. On the instant facts, and in relation to this specific Post and Article, I am not satisfied that there is enough basis for me to draw the inferences the plaintiff advocates. This is not to say that publication can only be established by direct evidence. Rather, the platform of facts upon which the precise extent of publication is made out must be a robust one, and must relate to the specific context in which publication took place, rather than merely on academic extrapolation. 104 I also note that the findings in SUM 428 do not show that the plaintiff’s assertions on the extent of the publication should, without more, be accepted. Those determinations had been made in the context of a striking-out application. The fact that the defendant eventually chose to submit that there was no case to answer in the substantive trial did not mean that the Court should conclude, 56