ABSTRACT
In this chapter, digital and social media have provided an ideal communication environment for populists to successfully mobilise propaganda, lies, and conspiracy theories to propagate populist narratives and augment populist truth-making in an era where emotions trump facts. While experts previously highlighted the role that Singapore's strong authoritarian state plays in acting as a safeguard, this chapter attempts to nuance the current picture. On 8 May 2019, Singapore passed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, which provides the government with the legal power to swiftly act against perpetrators of online falsehoods. In summary, this chapter has argued that understanding Singapore's resilience against populism especially in the form of populists' falsehoods and truth-making needs to go beyond looking at the role of Singapore's paternalistic state and strong institutions. Moving forward, scholarly work exploring the relationship between populism, misinformation, and social media can afford to pay greater attention to two aspects.
