March 29, 2024

Erichoffer

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Progress Singapore Party suspends member behind offensive post on NUS Atheist Society Facebook page

SINGAPORE: The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) has suspended the membership of the person who ran the NUS Atheist Society Facebook page, a party spokesperson said on Saturday (Mar 21).
 
The spokesperson said that Mr Jan Chan had earlier admitted to the party that he was behind the Facebook page. 
 
“The Progress Singapore Party is not linked to the NUS Atheist Society,” said the party in a public statement it posted on its Facebook page.
 
The party added that it “views the behaviour of all our members very seriously and will endeavour to ensure that all members keep within the boundaries of the law”.
 
It will decide what further steps to take once investigations are completed, the spokesperson said, adding that he will not be allowed to take part in any party-sanctioned activities during this period. 
 
Mr Chan had been a member since January this year, and he had participated in several walkabouts, the spokesperson said. 
 
On Friday, the police said they were investigating after a Facebook page titled NUS Atheist Society put up a post suggesting the Bible and the Quran as alternatives to be used in the event of toilet paper shortages.

READ: Police investigating offensive NUS Atheist Society post on Facebook: MHA

The Ministry of Home Affairs said on Friday that it had received a number of complaints about the post. 
 
It had asked Facebook to disable access to the “religiously offensive post” and highlighted “the importance of racial and religious harmony in our society”. 
 
Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam also said that the Facebook post was “very offensive” towards Muslims and Christians. 
 
Mr Shanmugam in his Facebook post said: “We take a serious view of these type of statements.”
 
In a Facebook post on Friday, the National University of Singapore (NUS) said it has “no relationship” with the NUS Atheist Society and that the Facebook page is not affiliated to the university.
 
NUS said it had reported the NUS Atheist Society page to Facebook twice – once in 2019, and again on Mar 19, 2020. On both occasions, NUS requested that Facebook look into the legitimacy of the account.
 
The social media company has since disabled access to the post.

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