Podcast show Plan B given POFMA order over 'Messiah' hacker interview

SINGAPORE: A correction direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) has been issued to Plan B over statements made by a hacker on the podcast show, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday (Sep 13).

Plan B's three most recent podcast episodes feature James Raj Arokiasamy, who uses the pseudonym The Messiah and claims to be part of hacktivist group Anonymous. 

He was arrested for drug offences in 2011 and 2013, and in 2015 was sentenced to four years and eight months' jail for computer misuse and drug consumption.

James Raj was also arrested in November 2021 for affray, after getting into an altercation with a drunk customer in a shop.

While on Plan B's podcast show, he made multiple claims, including that the Singapore authorities did not press charges against him in 2021 out of fear of retaliation.

MHA said that he was only issued a stern warning as he was not the aggressor, had suffered a more serious injury than the other person, had no violent antecedents, and had readily admitted to kicking the drunk customer.

"If James Raj’s involvement had been more egregious, he would have been charged and prosecuted in court," said the ministry.

James Raj also claimed that he was isolated and "deprived of human interaction" other than with his warden, during his time in remand.

MHA said this description was "entirely baseless", pointing out that he was housed with other inmates - except on one occasion when he was in an isolation cell between Mar 28 and Mar 30, 2014, after committing prison disciplinary offences. 

James Raj's family members also made regular visits and corresponded with him through letters, while his lawyers saw him on at least 12 occasions, said MHA.

James Raj also said on Plan B that he was arrested and jailed for "protesting the regulation of internet censorship".

MHA clarified that he was wanted by Singapore authorities for absconding from bail after being arrested for drug offences. He was then arrested in Malaysia and repatriated to Singapore. 

Another claim by James Raj was that the government offered him a plea deal where he would plead guilty to 39 charges instead of proceeding to trial on over 400 charges, in order to "cover up the fact that he was able to hack into the systems of many government agencies".

MHA said he was served a total of 161 charges. After James Raj signed all the charge sheets, the prosecution proceeded on 40 charges while the remaining charges were taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing.

"This approach is consistent with the prosecution’s practice of proceeding on only a proportion of the charges, should an accused person elect to plead guilty instead of claiming trial. This avoids expending judicial resources unnecessarily," said MHA.

HACKING CLAIMS

James Raj also claimed on the podcast that he had hacked into the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) in 2013 as well as the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF).

But MHA said there was no evidence of SLA's systems being breached by James Raj. Investigations revealed that he had scanned SLA's servers for vulnerabilities but did not hack, "successfully or otherwise", into its systems.

MINDEF’s cyber and security agencies have also confirmed that its systems have never been breached by James Raj. MINDEF had clarified in a Facebook post on Monday that James Raj's claims on the podcast were "untrue".

Under the POFMA order, Plan B is required to carry correction notices alongside the three Spotify podcast episodes uploaded on Sep 6, which were also reproduced on Instagram the following day.

A check by CNA showed that as of 10pm on Wednesday, Plan B had put up correction notices on its Spotify and Instagram pages.

The Home Affairs Ministry also noted that James Raj had posted several videos on TikTok containing "additional falsehoods and allegations" that are "untrue".

"We understand that TikTok has banned James Raj’s TikTok account, @jamesmessiah, and the videos are no longer accessible," said MHA.