Remove a news article about you in Singapore

When an article can realistically come down

Singapore editors do not unpublish stories on request, and nobody can promise they will. They do act when a request fits their own standards and comes with proof. In our experience the document attached matters more than the wording. Requests that succeed usually fall into one of these groups:

• The facts changed. Charges were withdrawn, you received a discharge amounting to an acquittal, a civil claim was settled, or a company you were linked to was cleared. Proof: the court outcome, a letter from the police or the settlement terms.
• The facts were wrong. A reader-submitted post or a rushed report misidentified you, mixed up two people or repeated an unchecked claim. Proof: anything showing you were elsewhere or are not the person described.
• You were never the story. A witness, a relative, a passer-by in a viral clip or a minor named in passing can ask for anonymisation without disputing anything.
• Personal data is exposed. The article or its comments show your HDB block and unit number, phone number, partial NRIC or workplace, beyond what the story needs.
• The coverage is old and minor. A small incident from many years ago that still ranks first on your name is a common reason to ask for your name to be removed or the page to be excluded from search engines.

If the article is accurate, recent and in the public interest, we tell you so during the assessment instead of selling you a request that will fail.

News sites and portals we deal with

Each publisher has its own editorial team, contact route and attitude to removals. Mainstream newsrooms reply slowly, often in weeks rather than days, and prefer an update over deletion; reader-driven portals move faster but rely on what the contributor sent.

• Mainstream outlets such as The Straits Times and CNA: requests go to the editors, not the reporter, with documents that prove the change in facts.
• Online news and lifestyle portals such as Mothership, Must Share News and The Independent Singapore, where stories are often built from social media posts.
• Stomp, SPH Media’s reader-submitted site, which lists stomp@sph.com.sg for feedback: see removing a Stomp post about you.
• Chinese-language media such as Lianhe Zaobao and Shin Min Daily News, whose pages rank when someone searches your name in Chinese characters.
• Aggregators and copy sites that republish news automatically and keep the old version long after the original was updated, or re-cut into YouTube videos.

Discussions of the article on HardwareZone or Reddit are a separate job, explained on our page about forum posts about you.

What Singapore law gives you, and what it does not

There is no right to be forgotten in Singapore. The Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA) gives you access and correction rights (ss 21 and 22) against organisations, a publisher included, but no general right to erasure, and it does not apply to individuals acting in a personal capacity (s 4(1)(a)), so it is no help against a private poster.

For false statements of fact, the Protection from Harassment Act 2014 (POHA) lets you apply to the Protection from Harassment Court for a stop publication order (s 15A), a correction order (s 15B) or a disabling order against an internet intermediary (s 15C), with interim orders available. The simplified online process costs S$30 to file. Defamation remains a separate claim, usually through a lawyer.

The Online Safety Commission (OSC) handles doxxing, intimate image abuse, image-based child abuse, harassment and stalking. It states that news reports on crimes or court proceedings are not doxxing, and reputation harms belong to a later phase with no start date. If comments under an article publish your NRIC, address or phone number to target you, report it: the OSC is free and open to citizens, PRs and holders of a valid pass, including Work Permit, S Pass, Employment Pass and Dependant’s Pass holders.

NetClearer is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. We use these rules as arguments in editorial requests and tell you when a lawyer or the court is the better route.

Our services for news and forum content

How a removal request works

1. Free assessment, reply within 24 hours. You send the links through the contact form (Messenger works too). We check who publishes each page, what has changed and which request has a realistic chance.
2. Evidence pack. We assemble a short file: court outcome, police letter, settlement, proof of a mix-up or the plain passage of time, with nothing you would not want an editor to read.
3. Request to the right desk. We ask for the least drastic change that solves your problem: an update, removal of your name or photo, a noindex tag, or unpublishing. Action starts within 48 hours of payment.
4. Google and copies. Once the page changes, we use Google’s outdated content tool so the old title and snippet disappear, then trace aggregator copies and screenshots on social media.
5. Follow-up and report. Newsrooms need reminders. We follow each link until the editor decides and tell you the outcome in writing.

Why requests fail, and how we avoid it

• Threats. A request that opens with legal threats goes to the lawyers and can trigger a follow-up story. We write calmly and factually.
• No proof. “It hurts my career” rarely moves an editor; a court document usually does. We do not send a request until the evidence is in place.
• Asking too much. Demanding deletion of an accurate story gets refused, while removing a name is often accepted. We ask for what is achievable.
• Forgetting Google. When the publisher refuses, Google’s personal information form still covers pages showing an NRIC number, bank details or doxxing contact information. See removing links from Google.

Prices

A news link costs S$42, with action started within 48 hours. Several articles about the same event cost less as a pack: 3 links S$99, 10 links S$286 with a removal report, 20 links S$501 with monitoring for re-uploads. Fixed prices, no extra fees, secure card payment via Stripe, and nothing to pay before the free assessment. We never contact your employer or family. Details on the pricing page.