Protection from HarassmentAct 2014

Protection from Harassment Act 2014 2020 REVISED EDITION This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021 An Act to protect persons against harassment and unlawful stalking and false statements of fact, and to provide for the establishment of the Protection from Harassment Court. [17/2019] [15 November 2014] PART 1 PRELIMINARY Short title 1. This Act is the Protection from Harassment Act 2014. Interpretation 2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires — “administrator”, in relation to an online location, means an individual or entity who — (a) develops and maintains the online location; (b) organises, manages or supervises the use of the online location; (c) manages or regulates membership of, or access to, the online location; or (d) has the authority to decide whether any communication or material may be included on or excluded from the online location, or where to place the communication or material on the online location, or otherwise exercise editorial control over the online location, but does not include — (e) an internet intermediary; (f) the provider of a service which gives the public access to the internet; (g) the provider of a computing resource service; and (h) the provider of a telecommunication service; [Act 23 of 2025 wef 29/06/2026] “author”, in relation to a statement of fact, means the originator of the statement; “communication” means any words, image (moving or otherwise), message, expression, symbol or other representation that can be seen, heard or otherwise perceived by any person, or any combination of these; “computing resource service” means a service that provides processing capability or storage capacity through the use of any computer hardware or software; “correction (administrator) order” means an order made under section 15CB; [Act 23 of 2025 wef 29/06/2026] “correction order” means an order made under section 15B; “court” means a court of competent jurisdiction; [Act 31 of 2022 wef 01/11/2022] “disabling order” means an order made under section 15C; “electronic” means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic or similar capabilities; “entity” means any company or association or body of persons (whether corporate or unincorporate), but excludes any public agency; “general correction order” means an order made under section 15E; “identity information” means any information that, whether on its own or with other information, identifies or purports to identify an individual, including (but not limited to) any of the following: (a) the individual’s name, residential address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, national registration identity card number, passport number, signature (whether handwritten or electronic) or password; (b) any photograph or video recording of the individual; (c) any information about the individual’s family, employment or education; “interim disabling order” means an order made under section 16AA; “interim notification (administrator) order” means an order made under section 16BAA; [Act 23 of 2025 wef 29/06/2026] “interim notification order” means an order made under section 16B; “interim stop publication (administrator) order” means an order made under section 16AB; [Act 23 of 2025 wef 29/06/2026] “interim stop publication order” means an order made under section 16A; “internet intermediary” means a person who provides any internet intermediary service; “internet intermediary service” means — (a) a service that allows end‑users to access materials originating from third parties, using the internet; (b) a service of transmitting materials to end‑users on or through the internet; or (c) a service of displaying, to an end-user who uses the service to make an online search, an index of search results, each of which links that end‑user to content hosted or stored at a location which is separate from the location of the index of search results, but excludes any act done for the purpose of or that is incidental to the provision of — (d) a service of giving the public access to the internet; or (e) a computing resource service; Examples Examples of internet intermediary services are — (a) social networking services; (b) search engine services; (c) content aggregation services; (d) internet‑based messaging services; and (e) video‑sharing services. “material” means anything that consists of or contains a statement; Examples Examples of a material are a message, a post, an article, a speech, a picture, a video recording and a sound recording. “offending communication”, in relation to any contravention of a provision under this Act, means any communication or statement made in contravention of that provision; “online activity” means any activity conducted by means of the internet; [Act 23 of 2025 wef 29/06/2026] “online location” means any internet domain, website, webpage, chatroom, chat group, channel, group, forum, social media account page or any other location, that can be accessed by means of the internet; [Act 23 of 2025 wef 29/06/2026] “Part 3 proceedings” means civil proceedings for claims and orders under Part 3; “Protection from Harassment Court” means a District Court designated under section 16E(1)(a) as a Protection from Harassment Court; “Protection from Harassment Court Judge” means a District Judge designated under section 16E(1)(b) as a Protection from Harassment Court Judge; “public agency” has the meaning given by section 128A(6) of the Evidence Act 1893; “publish”, in relation to a communication or statement, means to make the communication or statement available in any form such that the communication or statement is or can be heard, seen or otherwise perceived by the public in Singapore or a member of the public in Singapore, and includes cause to be published; “Registrar” means the registrar of the State Courts, and includes a deputy registrar of the State Courts; “related person”, in relation to a person, means another person about whose safety or wellbeing the firstmentioned person would reasonably be expected to be seriously concerned; “relevant party”, in relation to an order, means an individual or entity against which the order is made; “shared residence”, in relation to the victim and the respondent who are the subjects of a protection order, means the premises at which the victim and the respondent are, or have been, living together as members of the same household; “statement” means any words (including abbreviations and initials), numbers, image (moving or otherwise), sounds, symbols or other representation, or a combination of any of these; “stop publication (administrator) order” means an order made under section 15CA; [Act 23 of 2025 wef 29/06/2026] “stop publication order” means an order made under section 15A; “stop publishing”, in relation to a communication, means taking the reasonable steps to ensure that the communication is not made available in any form such that the communication is or can be seen, heard or otherwise perceived by the public in Singapore or any member of the public in Singapore; “targeted correction order” means an order made under section 15D; “targeted interim notification order” means an order made under section 16BA. [17/2019] (2) In this Act — (a) a statement of fact is a statement which a reasonable person seeing, hearing or otherwise perceiving it would consider to be a representation of fact; and (b) a statement is false if it is false or misleading whether wholly or in part, and whether on its own or in the context in which it appears. [17/2019]