LobangClub asked by authorities to remove cigarette postings

What happens when your app was used to put up listings of tobacco products, an act that is potentially illegal under Singapore law?

That was the dilemma Shen Guyi, co-founder and CEO of LobangClub faced. If you remember, LobangClub is an app that allows users to easily compare and post the price of goods across multiple retail stores to help people find the best deals. We featured the app in September 2011.

So what exactly happened?

Well, according to a Straits Times report, that Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority demanded on 25th October that Guyi remove all postings related to cigarettes.

Guyi said: “My immediate reaction was that we weren’t doing any advertising. All we did was to provide a platform for users to share information.”

But later on, he complied, taking down some 100 listings from 10 cigarette brands. He also emailed LobangClub’s users to request that they not post anymore tobacco products.

The app currently has about 35,000 users and 50,000 listings of a wide range of products.

According to a HSA spokesperson, “the administrator of iPhone app LobangClub was instructed to remove the cigarette advertisements from the LobangClub portal, and also cautioned to be mindful about the prohibition of tobacco-related advertisements within the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act.”

Guyi, however, emphasized that more clarification must be given by the authorities with regards to the rule of law.

“I think there is a huge grey area here, if someone tweets or shares a picture of a cigarette on Facebook, is Facebook then liable to be sued by the Singapore government?” he told SGE via email. He wonders if the definition of advertising applies to social media use cases.

Guyi certainly has a point. So far, in instances where a person posted seditious comments on Facebook, the Singapore government has always arrested the individual. But then again, who the government interprets as being responsible in a scenario may depend on the statute that is used to interpret the action.

Furthermore, taking action on a Singaporean is far more easier than say, demanding that Facebook remove a posting. So it comes down to a question of proximity.

In any case, LobangClub is not the first, nor will it be the last, social networking service to come under the eye of the law, which often plays catch-up to new technologies and innovations.

Even Internet giant Google has to fend off the authorities from time to time. A US law enforcement agency on one occasion requested that YouTube remove a video of police brutality, but YouTube has stood their ground, partly because of the clout they have.

In LobangClub’s case, perhaps remove the cigarette postings isn’t such a bad idea, since tobacco is after all harmful to both the smokers and those inhaling cigarette smoke.

Photo: SuperFantastic

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