New centre to offer victims of online harms faster recourse from 2026

A new one-stop centre will be set up to help victims of online harms get recourse faster, particularly for harms related to cyber bullying, deepfakes and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.

- Osmond Chia

It will begin operations in the first half of 2026.

Named the Online Safety Commission, the dedicated government agency will be empowered by new legislation to order online platforms to take down offensive content flagged by victims.

To be tabled in Parliament later in 2025, the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Bill carries other remedies for victims such as the option to request perpetrators' information to commence legal proceedings.

"We want to do more to support victims of online harms," said Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo, announcing plans for the upcoming agency and legislation in Parliament on March 7 during the debate on her ministry's budget.

Strengthening trust and safety online is one of the key priorities for the Ministry of Digital Development and Information's (MDDI) spending over the next financial year, she said in her response to Ms Tin Pei Ling (MacPherson), who asked about rising cases of online harms.

"More often than not, platforms fail to take action to remove genuinely harmful content reported to them by victims," said Mrs Teo, referring to a study by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), which found that social media companies drag their feet when responding to reports of harmful content.

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube took an average of at least five days to respond to user complaints, the study said.

She cited the example of an 18-year-old victim whose likeness was used in a deepfake video that was circulated online, with her face superimposed onto another person's nude body.

Strangers reposted the image and left inappropriate comments, she said. When the girl made a report to the platform, it removed the original post but did not take down the copies of the image that had been shared.