Who's 'Matilda Lee'? Police investigates 27-year-old woman for racist tweets

A 27-year-old Singaporean woman is under investigation for tweeting content that promoted enmity between different racial groups.

The police said on Thursday (Sept 2) that the suspect had allegedly posted content against the Malay community under the Twitter username "Matilda Lee".

On Aug 29, the police received a report and established the identity of the Malay woman behind the offensive tweets.

Screengrabs of the suspect's tweets showed that she had been tweeting during the National Day Rally which occurred on the same night.  

Twitter users started asking: "Who is Matilda Lee?" and "What's wrong with her?".

In response, a Facebook user claiming to be the father of "Matilda Lee" apologised and asked the public to forgive his daughter.

He wrote in Malay: "I'm begging everyone to stop making this viral. My child has been unwell since 2013, and her actions are not deliberate. Schizophrenia. Once again, I apologise to all."

Police investigations are ongoing.

The offence of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of race carries a jail term of up to three years, or a fine, or both.

In June, a 35-year-old man who tweeted racially offensive content under the pseudonym "Sharon Liew" was jailed for three weeks.

In court, his lawyers claimed he was not racist, saying that he had “overstepped the mark” while “trying to be funny” in a parody Twitter account that had a 5,000-strong following.

PM Lee addressed the issue of race relations in his National Day Rally speech this year and introduced the new Maintenance of Racial Harmony Act.

ALSO READ: 'Everyone in my family is Singaporean': Sprinter responds to racist comments on National Day banner in Tanjong Pagar

amierul@asiaone.com