PUBLISHED ONNovember 26, 2025 4:00 AMUPDATEDNovember 26, 2025 8:46 AMBYSean LerThe Singapore Police Force (SPF) has ordered Meta and TikTok to disable former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff's Facebook and TikTok accounts.
In a statement on Wednesday (Nov 26), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that Meta — the parent company of Facebook — and TikTok were respectively issued a disabling direction, and account restriction direction, under the Online Criminal Harms Act (Ocha).
Ocha came into force in February 2024 and allows the Government to remove criminal content online.
MHA explained that the directions were issued over Zulfikar's repeated attempts to stir up discontent within the local Malay/Muslim community against the Chinese community in Singapore.
"He has incited feelings of enmity, hatred, ill-will and hostility against, contempt for and ridicule on different racial and religious groups in Singapore," MHA said.
According to MHA, the government has received numerous feedback from members of public, including several police reports, that Zulfikar's posts threaten racial and religious harmony in Singapore.
"MHA and SPF assess that overall, Zulfikar's online contents are offences under Section 17F(3) of the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act 1990," added MHA.
In response to AsiaOne's query, MHA said that this is not the first instance such directions have been issued under Ocha.
"Since the commencement of Ocha on Feb 1, 2024, the police have issued directions, including account restriction directions and disabling directions, to restrict the exposure of Singapore users to online criminal activities such as scams and malicious cyber activities.
The 54-year-old Australian citizen was detained under the Internal Security Act in 2016 for his promotion of terrorism and online glorification of the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
He had called on Muslims to reject the constitutional, secular, democratic state in favour of the establishment of an Islamic state government by syariah law, and that violence should be used to achieve this goal if necessary.
Zulfikar renounced his Singapore citizenship in 2020 and settled in Australia, where he has lived since 2002.
In one TikTok video seen by AsiaOne, Zulfikar claimed that the People's Action Party (PAP) government is a "Chinese supremacist party" which pushed "Malays to assimilate into being Chinese" through means such as "cutting off their economic growth" by banning them from national service.
In another Facebook video, Zulfikar, asked for the recognition of Malays as the "indigenous people of Singapura and Tanah Melayu". The term "Tanah Melayu" means Malay lands. It was used by former Malaysian prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who implied in June 2022 that Malaysia had a rightful claim on Singapore and the Riau Islands of Indonesia.
Both videos are now no longer available due to the disabling of Zulfikar's accounts.
Zulfikar, also known as "Zai Nal" on Facebook, also had his Facebook post blocked during the 2025 General Election.
He had accused several Malay-Muslim members of parliament (MP) of failing to represent the interests of the Muslim community and said that the local Muslim community did not need another Malay MP who did not represent their views.
In the statement, MHA said that the government takes a "very serious vie" of threats to Singapore's racial and religious harmony, including from foreigners, and will not hesitate to act against them.
Police investigations into Zulfikar are ongoing.
Calling Zulfikar's actions "serious", Acting Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Assoc Prof Faishal Ibrahim said he was glad that the police have taken a firm stance.
"More recently, his social media posts on TikTok and Facebook carried false and divisive allegations about both the Malay/Muslim and Chinese communities in Singapore, threatening the trust and social cohesion we have built over the decades," said Assoc Prof Faishal.
He added that there is "no place" for inflammatory posts that would destroy the social fabric of Singapore's multi-cultural society, built up by generations of Singaporeans.
The acting minister also encouraged Singaporeans to stay united and not allow "such acts of provocation to divide us".
"Let us continue to work together to protect the peace, trust and unity of our multi-racial and multi-religious society and chart a stronger future as one united people for generations to come," he added.
[[nid:723149]]
