More Singapore Facebook arrests likely

SINGAPORE--Arrests related to questionable comments made on social media platforms are likely to continue in future, says an industry analyst, who adds that both users and the government have a role to play in minimizing such incidents.

According to local reports, Abdul Malik Mohammed Ghazali was arrested earlier this week on charges related to incitement of violence due to comments he made on Facebook, Currently released on bail, the 27-year-old had urged other users on the social networking site to "burn" a local cabinet minister.

Quoting Abdul Malik, local media group Mediacorp said the police had interrogated him about his use of words "burn", "rally" and "sit-down protest". A report on news blog Temasek Review included a screen capture of his comment which was posted on Aug. 18:

Such cases are likely to continue in the future, according to Shivanu Shukla, associate director at research firm Frost & Sullivan. In a phone interview Thursday with ZDNet Asia, he said Singapore is a well-connected country with about two-third of its online population users of Facebook.

For more on this story, read Singapore Facebook arrest unlikely to be last on ZDNet Asia.